


The Darkest Hour

by TheWriterTriad



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Hero Mode (Splatoon), Incomplete - being rewritten, Old work, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-15 11:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 43,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11805423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWriterTriad/pseuds/TheWriterTriad
Summary: Like any fourteen year old, Quinn's headed to Inkopolis to try and make it big. Her goal is a simple one - to be recognized as one of the hundred best Ink Battlers in the city. She just didn't expect secretive friends, a vicious rival, and the hidden invasion of a supposedly extinct race to arise. One things for certain - this isn't going to be as easy as Quinn thought.Written by Shads





	1. Good Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to this fanfic. I'm so glad this story caught your eye. There is one thing I would like to address before you start reading. You may notice that this story bears some similarity to another Splatoon fanfic entitled Pure White. The author of that story is aware of mine and the similarities, and has given their blessing for me to write this. And please, go check out Pure White. It's not finished yet, but it is a very good story. 
> 
> Disclaimer for the entire fanfic: I do not own anything official. Original characters are mine unless otherwise stated. 
> 
> Fanart links:  
> AmbientAmbird (Deviantart): http://fav.me/db20men

The smoldering sun beat the tiny town with hazy rays of light, the entire world bathed in its golden glow. Down on the shore waves lapped at the sandy beach, the pristine waters’ toxicity disguised by its clear looks and clean salty scent. The drab buildings here were all a plain white, the largest of the structures only two or three stories tall. This city was on the outskirts of the land, the last refuge for travelers before they would have to cross a seemingly never-ending sea. No one had attempted to do that yet, and chances were that no one ever would. 

This was the small city of Splashtown, a country bumpkin’s home. The city was a pure visage of white, no snow necessary, the canvas for hundreds of thousands of street artists that made their living spraying ink on the walls. It was largely for the older folks, those long since retired from the adventures of their youths. Young kids, those who had not yet gained their humanoid form, squirmed around on the sidewalks, swimming through a multitude of colored inks. Older Inklings walked behind them, laughing and chatting the days away. 

It was quite curious, however, that there was not a teenager to be seen. No, as all young ones are wont to do, they were in Inkopolis, the largest city on the surface, the de facto capital of Inkling civilization. Here they fought their way up the ranks in turf wars, hoping, even dreaming, of becoming one of the top players. The one hundred best in the city lived in a luxury twelve story apartment building. The converted hotel had the standard lobby, pool, and other such luxuries on the first floor, and a private armory and training ground in the basement. Starting on floor two were the rooms for the players. 100 to 91 occupied the second floor, 90 to 81 on the third, and so on so forth all the way up to the eleventh floor, which housed numbers 10 to 2. The best player in the city got the twelfth floor all to his or herself.

Quite mysteriously, however, the best of the best rarely acknowledged their elite status in the public. People had guesses as to who was a part of this incredible group, but the members were rather secretive. It was no small surprise. Turf wars, though a ton of fun, were incredibly cut throat. Players would dedicate their entire careers just to get to be the hundredth best player in the entire city. There were some who would literally kill to get to the top spot. And that was just in turf wars. Ranked battles were even more vicious. 

But in the lonely paths of the tranquil Splashtown, the worries of turf wars and ranked battles were on few people's’ minds. All the teens were off acting crazy somewhere else. All except one. 

This particular Inkling had just turned 14 the day before, having only recently gained her humanoid form. Like the rest of her hometown, the room she slept in was all white, a wintery masterpiece. Her bed, her blankets, the desk, the chair, the rug...all were colored white. The walls were whitewashed as well, tiny specks of black marring the pristine surface. 

In fact, the only color in the room was in the form of its sole occupant. The girl was still asleep, her breathing slow and even; but even in unconsciousness there was an air about her that seemed to make her wise beyond her years. Her medium skin was tinted a nice light bronze, the black ring around her eyes giving the appearance of an ancient burglar mask. Her clothing was simply a plain white t shirt, black shorts, and a pair of white shoes that were by her bed. A gray headband held her two longest tentacles back from her face; though it was somewhat dislodged by her tossing and turning in her sleep. As the sun shone into her room, she twitched slightly, yawned, and slowly opened her eyes...

And promptly groaned as a thunderous pounding echoed in her room. 

“Move it Quinn! You’re going to miss the train!” 

Without waiting for an answer, footsteps retreated down the stairs. Quinn groaned once more and climbed out of her bed, blinking her charcoal gray eyes lazily. 

“14 for a little more than 24 hours, and Mom already wants me out of the house.” She grumbled as she got dressed in an identical outfit to the one she had slept in, pulling on her white shoes and grabbing her gray backpack. “I don’t see what her problem is. It’s not like I’m going to miss the…” She trailed off as what her mother said fully registered. In a panic, she glanced at the clock on the wall. The time was 6:56. The train left at seven. 

“Ah! I’m gonna miss the train!” Quinn yelped, tearing out of her sparse room. At this point, she was incredibly thankful that she had packed her meager belongings in her bag. She didn’t own much - just the clothes she wore, a few sketchbooks, and a first aid kit - but out here she had no need for any sort of weapon, nor did she really need anything else. That would, of course, change once she got to Inkopolis.

The panicked teen took the steps two at a time, darting through the house she had called home for so long. Her mother was waiting in the kitchen, a white paper sack in her hands, a knowing look on her face. Her daughter snagged the bag from the older woman’s outstretched hands, shoving it into her bag as she glanced at the time. 6:58. She could still make it. 

“Be careful dear.” Her mother said as her eldest gave her a quick hug before running outside. “Don’t get hurt, be sure to call me when you get there, and-”

“Can’t talk now mom! Love ya, and tell Harley I said I’ll miss him! Bye!” Quinn replied as she came to a halt on the patio. Shifting into a squid, she super jumped to the train platform on the outskirts of the town. 

Her mother watched her daughter go, a sad smile on her face. She would certainly miss Quinn, but there was little she could have done to prevent the girl from leaving. Quinn was the last of the kids near the age of fourteen in the small settlement - the next eldest, who just so happened to be her youngest, was ten - and with the large number of older folks, well, not a lot of them were having children anymore. It had been almost two years since the last squid turned 14, and unless more young couples moved to the small city - though in truth the settlement was too small to deserve such a title - this place would soon fade into an old folks home, only one on a massive scale. 

A faint wail drew her out of her thoughts, and the woman sighed. It sounded like her youngest was up. She allowed herself one last lingering look towards the station, before turning and walking into the house.


	2. Just a Smidge too Late

The ticket salesman was leaning back in his chair, enjoying the fact that the early morning rush had long since passed. There was nothing left to do - the train to Inkopolis had long since left, carrying squids on visits to families, and several hundred youngsters from the nearby towns. The small train station, once filled to the brim, was now quiet and desolate. The older man sighed in content and shut his eyes. Sure, he was on duty for another two hours, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take a nap. 

“Hey old man!”

The shout roused him into a sitting position, and as he blearily blinked his eyes he could see a younger Inkling running towards him, a panicked look on her face.

“Where’s the train?” She demanded, all out of breath. “It’s 6:59! It’s not supposed to have left yet!”

“The train reached full capacity.” The older Inkling replied, a bit annoyed at the young girl’s interruption. “Come back next month. That’s when the next train is.” 

Without waiting for an answer, the older man closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Quinn stared at the man in horror, before groaning and looking at the schedule. A whole month before the next train to Inkopolis. How was she going to last for an entire month? 

Quinn sighed and began walking out of the station, when something caught her eyes. The girl stopped and stared at the tracks. Sure, inside of the station they were boxed in, but just outside of the tunnel she could see light. Fresh air. Sure, it would take her the better part of the week to get to the city, but, well…

The girl glanced around to make sure that no one was watching, before studying the map on the wall. She could be in the next town by nightfall, as long as she would be careful. It would be quite dangerous out there. She was unarmed - the small town didn’t have an Ammo Knights shop, despite the fact that it was the largest settlement in the area - but as long as she was careful, she’d be fine. Besides, what was there to worry about? Octarians? The number one enemy of Inkling kind hadn’t been seen since the Great Turf War over a hundred years ago. The Inklings had pretty much forgotten them at this point. Chances were the Octarians had died out at this point. 

Her mind made up, Quinn stole one last look around the station. Then, with a confident gait, she jumped over the turnstile, darted across the platform, and hopped down to the tracks below. She wasted no time in scampering out of the building, breathing in the clean salty air as she began to make her way down the tracks. 

......................................................................................................................

Quinn smiled as she inhaled a breath of clean salty air. She had been following the tracks for some time now, perhaps five or six hours by now. The path wound along a set of sheer cliffs, and a tumble here would mean a one way trip to whatever awaited an inkling after death. Below the clear blue waves lapped at the shore, the toxicity of the water hidden by the dazzling bits of light that reflected off the whitecaps. The ancient land-fish that had once occupied the world had poisoned the ocean with their toxic waste, making it all but uninhabitable. Granted, if it weren’t for the toxic waste, the Inklings probably would have never evolved from their ancient ancestors, but even to this day, after they had purified the water, it was still toxic to Inkling kind. At this point, they had evolved so much that they just couldn’t live in it. 

The young teen shook her head and refocused on the path. All she had to do was not look down, and not think about how she was only a fall away from certain death, and she would be fine. There was nothing to worry about, nothing at all. 

“Alright, squadron, move out!” 

An unfamiliar voice echoed in the air, causing Quinn to stiffen and glance around. Carefully she crept along the wall, looking around the next curve. What she saw almost caused her heart to stop.

A group of bipedal creatures dressed in combat gear was standing on the tracks, at least half a dozen of them. They were no Inklings, however. No, though they had tentacles, and walked about on two legs, they were most certainly not one of her own kind. They were a group of creatures that at this point no one even thought existed.

Octolings.

Quinn bit her tongue, preventing one of the dozen or so cuss words that sprung to mind from escaping. She jerked her head back around the corner...only to come face to face with one of the unexpected enemies. She had taken it by surprise, as it was certain that she would not turn around. Thinking fast, she tackled it, a hand over her assailant's mouth to prevent the warning cry from alerting its companions. Briefly the two scuffled; first one winning, and then the other. Quinn was clearly outmatched. She had no training, and this mythical creature was strong. Soon her hands were pinned, and just as the triumphant Octoling was about to raise the alarm, the Inkling kneed her in the gut. The air rushed out of her enemy, and the girl dropped her weapon as she tried to recover from the unexpected blow. Quinn dove on top of it, pulling the ink tank off the downed foe as she ripped the weapon away. 

Her hands moving as if they had a mind of their own, Quinn slid the tank onto her back, the ink bubbling a moment before shifting to match its new owner’s color. The Octoling, at this point recovered, stood up...only to receive a faceful of ink. A small squeak escaped her, before she burst, ink flying everywhere. Quinn paused, her hand still on the trigger, not certain if she had just killed it, but a moment later the surface of the ink puddle bubbled a bit, and the Octoling rose to the surface. She was out cold. 

Quinn relaxed a moment, before glancing at the gun she held in her hand. She needed a weapon, and this one would work for now. She’d trash it before she reached Inkopolis. 

“Did anyone else just hear that?”

Voices, and they were getting closer. Quinn paled and shot some ink out of her gun down the slope. It was risky what she was about to do, but if she got caught, she’d end up dead anyway. 

The teen shifted into a squid. She wasted no time in swimming down the rocky slope, coming to a stop about three meters from the water’s edge. No sooner was she in position, the group of Octolings that she had seen earlier rounded the corner, their black and coral tentacles sticking out like a sore thumb among the rocks.

“Octavia!” The one in the lead, a tall Octoling with kelp woven into her tentacles, said in shock as she observed her fallen comrade. It was unexpected, to say the least, as the squadron wasn’t expecting to find themselves under attack. 

“What do we do, Odette?” One of the others, probably a grunt, wondered. Odette frowned, looking around.

“There’s no one in sight.” She said after a while. “We didn’t hear any sounds of a struggle, nor did Octavia radio for help. More likely than not, she probably was trying to clean her gun and it went off, knocking her out. It couldn’t have been an Inkling, the next train isn’t supposed to pass for another month, and one of those stuck up squids would have to be a fool to travel out here by him or herself.”

“What do we do?” Another soldier asked. Odette sighed, mostly in frustration. 

“We got what we came for, remember?” She said, a bit harshly. “The extraction team will be here any moment now to retrieve us. We’re pulling out. And I’m going to have another chat with Octavia once she wakes up. She could have potentially revealed our presence to anyone had we been any closer to one of the Inkling settlements, and if they had seen us, our entire mission would be at stake. Not only that, but she’s knocked herself out, made herself look like a fool, and obliterated both her gun, and her ink tank. She’s definitely going to have a dressing down when she wakes up.”

Before the leader could say anymore, a UFO swooped down from the sky, hovering right over the spot where Quinn lay submerged. The Inkling’s heart skipped a beat as the Octolings picked up their fallen comrade, before super jumping to the flying object. They entered the cab, and the aircraft wasted no time in speeding off.

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief before swimming back up to the track. She shifted back into her humanoid form, admiring her new weapon.

It was either old, or not very well maintained. There was a buildup of dried ink around the nozzle, the rubber tubes were dried and starting to crack, and the metal was starting to rust. The ink tank was worn and faded, the light on top no longer functional. But it appeared to be water tight, which was good, and she knew first hand that the gun worked. Either way, she had a weapon, though it would probably break before she made it to Inkopolis.

Quinn looked up at the sky, groaning when she realized that it was getting late. She didn’t know how far it was to the next town, but she still had a lot of ground to cover before she reached Inkopolis. Sighing, she resumed her march, wearily trudging towards civilization.


	3. Almost There

A week and a half to the day she had left her hometown, and her journey was almost complete. Quinn stood atop a hill, the skyline of Inkopolis rising in the distance. She had nothing but the clothes on her back, and whatever was left in her pack after a week and a half of walking. She was tired, cold, and absolutely famished. The girl had rented a small deposit box in a bank at the last town she had been in, electing to store the Octoling’s weapon and ink tank in it. She knew she was going to stick out like a sore thumb once she reached the biggest city on land, and having an Octoling weapon would only make it worse. 

Ever since she had left her weapon behind, however, she had felt like a part of her was missing. There was just something about owning a weapon that made her feel a bit more...grownup.

Quinn sighed and shook her head, before she trudged down the hill. She was so close, she didn’t want to stop now.

“Hey, you!”

The girl stopped and looked around, before a trio of shadows appeared on the ground in front of her. A few moments later, three other Inklings touched down in front of the startled girl.

“You’re not from around here, are you newbie…” The one in the middle, a boy with blue tentacles tied up behind his head trailed off as his two companions stared at the dirty girl in front of them.

“What?” She asked, a bit harshly. Normally Quinn did not speak as sharply as she had, but she was cold, tired, hungry, and wanted to get to Inkopolis before nightfall.

“Our apologies.” The only other boy in the group, and older looking one with green tentacles, said quietly. “It’s just that we haven’t seen an Inkling quite like you before.”

“Oh, these?” Quinn gestured to her tentacles offhandedly. “Yeah, I suppose you could say that I’m not normal, at least in this regard.” 

“So, I assume you dyed your tentacles black?” The only girl, one with orange tentacles, inquired. “That has to be the only way they’re solid black, right?” Quinn shook her head. 

“Nah, I’ve had em like this since the day I was born.” She replied nonchalantly. “Besides, I thought that Callie of the Squid Sisters had black tentacles, too.”

“I’m pretty sure she dyes them.” The girl speculated. “Her tentacle tips are magenta, and it’s notoriously difficult to artificially color the ends of tentacles. She’s probably naturally magenta and just dyes it black to look trendy. Same thing with Marie.” 

“Oh, excuse our manners.” The blue tentacled Inkling said suddenly. “My name’s Yusei. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I’m Flora.” The only girl added. “And the green tentacled squid is my twin brother, Fabio. What’s your name?”

“Quinn.” Replied the black tentacled inkling. “I’m from Splashtown.” 

“Isn’t that the largest settlement on the island to the north?” Fabio wondered. Quinn nodded.

“Yeah, the really large city with a grand total of one hundred and twenty occupants.” She said in a joking manner. That’s where I’m from. It’s not exactly a hop, skip, and a jump from Inkopolis, if you catch my drift.” 

“Are you implying that you walked here?” Yusei asked in shock. The black tentacled Inkling grinned, though the exhaustion she felt clearly showed on her face.

“Yeah, I missed the only train out of town, and I didn’t feel like wasting another month sitting around for the next one.” She admitted sheepishly. “So I decided to walk.” The trio looked at the girl as if she was nuts, though Quinn ignored them. Finally, Flora coughed.

“So, you ever held a weapon, Quinn?” She asked. Quinn thought about it for a moment, but figured it would be best to not to reveal the fact that she had not only held a weapon, but had also taken out its former owner. Deliberately, she shook her head.

“No, there isn’t an Ammo Knights store anywhere near where I live.” She replied. “I’ll figure out how they work when I get to the city.” 

“Well, we’ve got some time before our train leaves.” Yusei suggested, looking at the other two for confirmation. Seeing no objections, he grinned. “Why don’t we teach you a few tricks. It’s the least we can do for holding you up.” 

“Really?” Quinn sounded a bit shocked. Fabio grinned.

“Yeah, we’ll teach you some funky fresh moves on your way to the city, and we’ll even show you a shortcut to get there.” He said. Quinn grinned, signifying that she was up for a little fun. Yusei smirked, before looking at the twins.

“Okay, Fabio, Flora, mind getting things set up?” He asked. “Do it near the underpass, it’s not on the battle rotation for today. Things should be relatively quiet.” The siblings nodded once, before they shifted into squids and super jumped away.

....................................................................................................................

Ah, Urchin Underpass. A relatively quiet and unassuming area, all but abandoned when it wasn’t in use for ranked battles or turf wars. Above them on the overpass, cars zipped by, while the actual battle area was being scouted by some Inklings, no doubt preparing for the matches tomorrow. Flora and Fabio ignored them and headed over to a more secluded area. It was the unofficial practice area for newcomers, since they couldn’t use the alleyway behind Ammo Knights until they were level four or better. Strangely, however, the place was desolate.

“It must be due to that UFO crash nearby.” Fabio speculated after his sister wondered where everyone else was. “Oh well, it doesn’t really matter where everyone else is. Quinn will have some privacy.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Flora still seemed a bit creeped out over the fact that no one else was around. Fabio sighed, before consulting his map. 

“Never mind that.” He said. “Flora, I’m going to go set up the crates, and go lay down some yellow ink. Can you get the balloons ready and in position?”

“Sure thing, bro!” She replied cheerily before skipping off to start her work. Fabio rolled his eyes and sighed before selecting a nearby crate and began dragging it into position.


	4. A Few New Tricks

Quinn stared dubiously down at the Splattershot Jr. that she held in her hands. Yusei had let her borrow his old one to use during the unexpected crash course, saying that it was the standard weapon that begginers used. It wasn’t like she had any choice in the matter. Ammo Knights was, believe it or not, the only weapons shop in Inkopolis, and the area around it. The chain store would have rather not sold anything to newcomers, since they weren’t fresh enough, but realized that if the rookies didn’t have weapons, they wouldn’t level up; and if they didn’t level up, the chances of them becoming fresh was slim to none. It was the same with the other shops - level threes and below were only sold one basic piece of merchandise. It was only when one was a level four that they were deemed worthy of a larger selection of goods.

This weapon had a somewhat erratic fire rate, though with all that ink flying everywhere, she was bound to be able to hit something. It came with a splat bomb for a sub weapon, and a bubbler as a special ability. That would come in handy when she was in a tough spot. 

Though it was in the same family of weapons as the Octoling’s gun, she found that it felt dead in her hands. The weapon she had taken from the Octoling had felt alive with power, even though it was old and not in the best of shape. This Splattershot Jr., however, just felt like a piece of plastic. 

She had patiently gone along as Yusei had walked her through the basics - how to shoot, how to arm a splat bomb, how to activate the bubbler, and so on and so forth. The pair had then made idle talk, until Yusei’s squid phone began to ring. He answered it, a smile crossing his face as he listened to whoever was on the other end speak.

“Okay then, we’ll be right on over.” He said before hanging up and looking over at Quinn. “Flora and Fabio ran into a slight issue, and they have to go back to Inkopolis. I need to join them soon, but they have a mini tutorial all set up, so we can go through that first. You ready, Quinn?”

Quinn nodded once, before shifting into a squid. She tensed up, before launching into the air a moment later, hot on Yusei’s tail.

....................................................................................................................

They touched down in a manmade corridor, a cluster of balloons in a line nearby. Quinn looked around in confusion, unsure of what was going on. Yusei nodded at the balloons.

“Go on ahead, pop them.” He said. Quinn shrugged, but raised the gun, pressing down on the trigger. Black ink sprayed out of the nozzle, coating the rubber party decorations. They burst with a satisfying pop, little drops of ink spraying everywhere. Without waiting for Yusei;s instructions, Quinn sprayed more ink around the area, before shifting into a squid and diving into it. The girl swam to the end of the corridor, before slipping back into her humanoid form. She pressed herself against the wall, peaking around the corner, before locking and loading her gun, so to speak. Yusei watched her curiously, wondering what she would do. 

Suddenly Quinn darted around the wall, and he heard the sounds of the Splattershot Jr. being fired. Yusei gave her a few moments, before following the girl. She was just ahead of him, inking the turf and popping balloons left and right. Considering that it was her first time holding a weapon, she wasn’t doing that badly. 

He caught up to her standing at a dead end wall, looking up at the platform above her in frustration. It was just a bit too high for her to reach.

“Now what?” She asked, a bit confused. 

“You know you can swim in ink, right?” Yusei inquired. Quinn rolled her eyes.

“I spent the first fourteen years of my life squirming around on sidewalks and swimming in ink.” She retorted dryly, before trailing off as she took in the look on Yusei’s face. “Are you seriously implying that I can swim up walls.” 

“Yeah, I am.” Yusei replied before pulling out his E-Liter 3K Scope. He charged up a blast, aiming up the wall, and fired. A trail of dark blue ink shot out, forming a clear path up the wall. Yusei dove into the ink, little ripples giving away his position as he cleared the wall with ease. 

Quinn shrugged, before mimicking Yusei’s actions. Moments later, she was on top of the wall as well. 

“Okay, that’s just the basic stuff.” The older boy informed his apprentice. “We’re going to move on to some of the more advanced tricks and techniques now. The first is a dash jump. Build up speed while you’re swimming in your own ink, and when you jump, you’ll go a lot further than normal. Watch.”

He inked the turf in front of the pair, before swimming off. A moment later, he sailed over a jump, landing on the other side of the small chasm. 

“Make sure you’re swimming in your own ink color.” He called over as Quinn looked dubiously at the blue liquid. “You can’t swim in the ink I just put down unless you’re the same color that I am.” 

“Got it!” Quinn replied, before the girl stepped into the blue ink. She closed her eyes and a moment later her black tentacles turned to match Yusei’s midnight hue. The teen dove down into the dark blue ink, swimming towards the jump for all she was worth. She made the jump easily, landing in her humanoid form. Her tentacles rippled once before reverting to their jet black coloring.

“Nice work.” Yusei was impressed, most youngsters had trouble changing their color that easily. “Just do me a favor and don’t do that right now. When you’re playing turf wars, you can’t change your color in the middle of the fight.” 

“Okay, sorry.” Quinn looked down at the ground prompting Yusei to reassure her that he wasn’t mad. “What’s next?” 

“I want you to get past that grate.” Yusei pointed to the metal structure a few meters south. “Since Inklings don’t have any bones, we can pass through wire mesh, and grates. It’s only possible when we’re squids, though.”

“Why can’t we do it when we’re kids?” Quinn wondered as she and Yusei passed through the obstacle. 

“When us Inklings are in our bipedal form, some of our ink hardens into a supporting skeleton.” Yusei replied. “We need it to stand upright, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to hold our shape. We don’t need that same support system when we’re squids, though. And a word of warning. You can swim through grates, but if you’re on a mesh platform, you don’t want to turn into a squid unless there’s something beneath you. You’ll fall through the grates, and on some maps, that’ll take you out of bounds.” 

“Got it.” Quinn mentally filed the information away for later. “How much longer until we reach Inkopolis?” 

“We’re almost there.” Yusei replied, before checking the time on his phone. “It’s a good thing, too. I need to leave soon. Which means we need to step things up a bit. Down below us Fabio’s sprayed some of his green ink around the area. If you walk into that, you’ll get slowed down, and eventually stuck. That’ll make you an easy target during matches. You’ll want to cover that green ink up with your black ink. Think you can handle that?” 

“Watch me!” Quinn replied before jumping down to the lower area, firing her gun before she hit the ground. A little splotch of black appeared among the green, and Quinn quickly inked a trail through the deadly field. Yusei was busy charging up another shot, launching it and making his own safe trail. He swam through the field with ease, ignoring the UFO that was lodged into the ground. 

“Almost there, Quinn.” He said as he joined the girl. “A quick question for you. When playing Turf Wars, what’s more important: splatting your opponents, or inking the ground?”

“Well, the idea behind Turf Wars is to see which team can cover the most ground in a given area in three minutes.” Quinn mused, thinking out loud. “So covering up unclaimed turf, as well as areas already claimed by your opponents is pretty important. But at the same time, taking out your opponents also is important, because if you can keep splatting them, they can’t ink a lot of turf. Plus, when you splat another player, the area where they were standing gets coated in your ink, so I’m going to say that covering turf is the most important thing, but you should also try to splat your opponents whenever possible.” 

“Correct.” Yusei said, admiring the fact that the girl was able to see both sides of the equation. “Which leads us to the next topic: using a sub weapon. There are tons of sub weapons out there, but I’m going to focus on bombs right now. There are four kinds: splat bombs, burst bombs, suction bombs, and seekers. Suction bombs can stick to walls, burst bombs will go off the moment that they hit something, and seekers will travel along a straight line, or go after enemies. You’ll learn about those three later, though. Right now we’re just going to work with splat bombs, since the Splattershot Jr. comes with them as a sub weapon.”

He swiftly taught the girl how to arm a splat bomb, warning her that it would deplete most of the ink in her ink tank. He suggested to keep an eye on the light located at the top of the tank. If it was blinking, she had enough ink to use the sub weapon. Quinn was short a bit, so she dove back into her own ink and swam for a bit to get enough stored up. She pulled out the pyramid shaped bomb, armed it, and tossed it at a large stack of crates. A few moments later it blew up, turning the wooden storage boxes to splinters.

“Just swim up those walls, and we’ll reach the launchpad. Yusei said before inking his path up the walls. He swam up the vertical surface, slipping through the mesh platform with ease, Quinn hot on his heels. At the top she found Yusei standing by a launchpad.

“This’ll take us straight to the heart of Inkopolis.” He said. “I regret that I can’t show you around, but I can point out the various shops and such before I take my leave.”

“Okay.” Quinn said before unbuckling the ink tank from her back. She handed it and the Splattershot Jr. to Yusei, who accepted the gun with a smile. He didn’t use the weapon anymore, but most Inklings had a sentimental attachment to their first weapon. 

“Alright then, one last tip.” Yusei told her as the two shifted into squids and prepared to super jump. “During a match you can super jump to your team’s spawn point, any of your teammates, or squid beacons. They’ll show up on your stage map. Just be careful, you’re vulnerable right before you jump. You ready?” 

“Let’s go!” Quinn replied. Yusei smirked before swimming onto the launchpad, shooting off into the air. Quinn took her place, tensing up, before she was suddenly high in the sky and sailing towards the city below.


	5. Inkopolis at Last

The pair touched down in a mildly crowded plaza, the newcomer receiving her fair share of stares; though she did her best to ignore them. It was early evening, so the square wasn’t as full as she expected it to be, though it would probably be filled to the brim with Inklings the next day. Yusei glanced at the time before looking over at Quinn.

“Welcome to Inkopolis.” He said. “This is the plaza, where all the freshest folk and those trying the make it big time come to chill like krill. If you run into anyone here, chances are they’ll be obsessed with the hottest sport in Inkopolis: Ink Battles. That crazy tall building in front of us is Inkopolis Tower. It’s the city’s most famous landmark. You can go up to the observation deck to check out the view, but if you want to get into battles, you’ll want to go to the lobby on the first floor. The building to our left is Booyah Base. It’s essentially a mini mall for those looking into getting new weapons and gear. There are four stores: Shrimp Kicks, Jelly Fresh, Cooler Heads, and Ammo Knights. You’ll be able to buy all sorts of fresh gear and weapons to use in battles there. But check it - the staff in the shops can be a snobby bunch. They won’t serve you is they don’t think you’re fresh enough. You’ll need to go in anyway to get your beginner's gear, but they won’t sell you anything else right now. I’d recommend coming back when you hit level four, they might sell you some stuff then.”

“What do I do if I just want to practice, or go one on one against someone?” Quinn asked. 

“I’m getting to that.” Yusei replied. “The Battle Dojo is on the second floor of that building over there. Check it out if you wanna battle your friends one on one, or sharpen your skills. I’d recommend steering clear of that back alley, though. It smells a little fishy. That tall building right by Inkopolis Tower? That’s where the top one hundred players in the entire city live. You aren’t allowed in there unless you become one of them. And the security squids mean business, so I’d stay away unless you get invited inside. And next we have...huh?”

Yusei trailed off in shock as he saw a much older Inkling lift up a grate near Inkopolis Tower, glancing around the plaza, before ducking back down out of sight.

“Who’s that creepy old dude?” Quinn wondered. Yusei shrugged.

“I don’t know. He seems like the type who could get you mixed up in something dangerous. I’d steer clear.”

Yusei looked at his phone again, only to see that it was almost time for his train to leave. 

“Oh, for the love of ink…” He muttered before sighing. “I gotta run. If I were you, I’d get your gear and do some matches. That screen up there by the Dojo displays current news every four hours. Callie and Marie should show up any minute. They’ll announce the new stages. See you around, Quinn.”

“See you, Yusei.” Quinn replied. “Thanks for the help. Hopefully I’ll see you around town. Can you thank Flora and Fabio when you see them for me?”

Yusei nodded once, before he became a squid again, and super jumped away.

Quinn looked around, before sighing. Several Inklings were staring at her, no doubt shocked by her black tentacles. When they realized that she was staring at her, however, they hurriedly looked away. Quinn shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts, before walking off towards Booyah Base. If she was going to do some Turf Wars tomorrow, she’d need gear, and she wasn’t sure if what she was wearing counted. She just hopped that she didn’t have to wear anything brightly colored. 

The closest shop was Shrimp Kicks, so she decided to head there first. It looked pretty empty, so hopefully the shopkeeper wouldn’t mind selling to her. She did have enough money to buy the basic gear, after all. Making up her mind, the girl pushed the door open, a bell dinging to signify a customer. 

Shoes lined the wall, some trendier than others. Behind the counter stood a tall shrimp, tiny pairs of his wares on his many limbs. 

“Can I help you…” He trailed off for two reasons. One was the fact that his newest customer was perhaps the least fresh squid he had ever seen. The second was that the unfresh squid had solid black tentacles.

“I came to buy some shoes, Mr. Sean.” Quinn replied, pointedly ignoring his stare. Crusty Sean sighed.

“Look, squiddo, I’d love to sell to you, but you aren’t looking that fresh, if you catch my drift.” He said. Quinn rolled her eyes in disgust. 

“Oh, believe me, I know.” She muttered, think back to the stares in the plaza. She was betting that at least half of them was in shock over a fresh kid like Yusei hanging out with an unfresh girl like herself. “But the sign on the door said you sold shoes to beginners.”

“Oh, the Cream Basics.” Crusty nodded before heading for the back. “What size, squiddo?”

“Seven and a half, please.” Quinn replied, a pair of soccer cleats catching her eye as she waited for the man to retrieve the wares. They were expensive - easily a five figure sum -but it came with three open ability slots. She’d have to save a lot of money to get it. 

“Alright, squiddo, try these on.” Crusty handed the shoebox to the girl, who slipped out of her dirty white sneakers and into the cream colored shoes. The large shrimp frowned, noticing that they were in filthy condition.

“What happened to your sneaks?” He asked. Quinn shrugged.

“Oh, I missed the train out of Spashtown, so I walked here.” She said. “It only took me a week and a half; not as long as I thought it would be.”

Crusty looked at the pair of shoes, admiring their quality. A week and a half of hard walking or running, and yet they showed no signs of wear or tear. Granted, they were filthy, but if memory served him correctly, for this kid to reach Inkopolis from Spashtown in a week and a half, they would need to cover almost a hundred kilometers a day.

“These fit.” Quinn said, drawing him out of his thoughts. “How much do I owe you?” 

“Eh, they’re on the house, squiddo.” Crusty replied. “Come back when you’re a bit fresher, I’ll sell you some stuff then.”

“Okay, thank you Mr. Sean.” Quinn said as she walked out. 

“Call me Crusty, squiddo.” He replied. “Everyone does. A word of warning, though, the other shopkeepers probably won’t be as friendly as I am. Especially Sheldon, he’s a bit reluctant to part with his weapons.”


	6. Ryker's Crew

True to Crusty’s words, the next to shopkeepers didn’t seem to enjoy her presence at all. Jelonzo, who sold shirts, had barely looked at her before throwing a medium t shirt at her and taking the appropriate amount of cash from the girl’s hands. It was clear he didn’t want her in the shop. Quinn had quickly left, cringing as she noticed the bright yellow hue. There was a nice white t shirt with long burgundy sleeves that she would have prefered, but she didn’t want to push her luck. Annie, who was in charge of Cooler Heads, was nice, if a bit shy. But that annoying clown fish that lived in the anemone's hair - Moe, she dimly recalled - had insulted her so much the girl was seeing red by the time she had paid for her white headband, and it was all she could do to leave the shop before she strangled the fish.

Quinn had wisely decided to wait to calm down, a process that involved playing several levels of Squid Jump on an old arcade machine, and visiting a sea urchin named Spyke that lived in that suspicious back alley. He was just like the others - he wouldn’t do business with her until she was fresh - but like Crusty he was polite. He also happened to be a bit of a flirt, calling her ‘love’ and ‘mate’ every other sentence.

At this point it was even later than Quinn had thought it would be, the plaza all but abandoned. The girl was hungry, tired, and sore, but she still had one last stop to make. And so, not without a bit of apprehension, she turned her footsteps towards Ammo Knights.

The shop was dimly lit, the light bouncing off a variety of weapons of all shapes and sizes. Quinn could see chargers, rollers, sloshers, brushes, guns, blasters, and splatlings that would please anyone, but the weapon that caught her eyes was the Splash-o-Matic. According to the tag, it came with the suction bombs as its sub weapon, and a bomb rush as a special. And it was relatively cheap, too. She’d be able to afford it by the time she reached level four. Until then, she would have to make do with a Splattershot Jr.

“Can I help you?”

 

The words were spoken in the dry voice of someone who was forced to endure something unpleasant. Quinn turned around to see a short horseshoe crab standing behind her, the look on his face showing that he was unimpressed by her looks. 

“I came to buy a Splattershot Jr.” Those seven words felt like such a betrayal as they slipped out of her mouth, but she knew that there was nothing else she could buy. The crab rolled his eyes, muttered something about too many rookies in his grandpappy’s store, before sighing and walking towards the display where the rookie weapons were kept. Just as he was about to unlock it, however, the door opened.

“Oy, Sheldon!” An orange inkling said as he walked into the shop, followed by a group of three more guys - light blue, purple, and yellow respectively. “We came to buy some weapons.”

“Ryker, it’s nice to see you.” Sheldon abandoned Quinn, scurrying over to the newcomers. “You’re looking fairly fresh, as always. So, what are you in the mood for today?”

“I want the Hydra Splatling.” Ryker replied, a grin on his face. No doubt he was planning on splatting several newbies the next day.

“While you’re at it, I need the E-Litre 3K Scope.” The purple boy, a guy named Liam, added.

“Don’t forget a Tri Slosher Noveau for me!” Dashiel, the light blue Inkling, piped up.

“And to finish things off, I want the Luna Blaster Neo.” The yellow kid, who went by Zane, said. Sheldon nodded before he began to scurry around the shop, a huge smile on his face, pulling out the requested weapons. The four boys made idle chat, while Quinn stared at the whole scene in shock. Eventually she recovered, a scowl on her face, and pulled Sheldon aside.

“In case you forgot, I was here first.” She said angrily. Sheldon shook her hand off his arm, a frown on his face.

“Company policy.” He said. “Fresh squids get fresh service first.” 

And with that, he went to running back around the shop. Quinn growled, but resigned herself to having to wait. It was unfortunate, however, that her little outburst caught the attention of Ryker.

“Well what’s this?” He asked as he grabbed the girl, spinning her around to face him, his friends blocking the girl’s only chance of escape. “Yet another mouldy rookie, hoping to make it big.”

“You got a problem with that, bub?” Quinn retorted hotly, letting her temper flare. Dashiel laughed. 

“Oh, look out, the noob’s gonna throw a temper tantrum.” He said in mock fear. “Oh, someone please help me! I’m so scared!” He broke off his sarcastic monologue, and the four boys laughed. It was an ugly laugh, one full of scorn and loathing. Quinn tensed, wishing she had her Octoshot. She wanted to splat them all so badly, and see how they liked her then. At the very least she would shut them up for a few hours.

“Hey Ryker, maybe we should teach her a few lessons.” Liam suggested. Zane snickered, before pulling out his Luna Blaster.

“You see this, kid?” He asked in a mocking tone. “It’s called a gun. And if you press down on the trigger like this…” He pressed it, causing a ball of ink to fly out and strike Quinn in the face. Yellow ink dripped off of her tentacles, and the shock of the impact caused the girl to see double for a few moments. The boys laughed again, each one pulling out their own weapon and “teaching” the girl how to use it. Soon she was covered in a multitude of ink splotches, her white shirt and new shoes stained. She clenched her fists, fighting back the urge to strangle them all. 

“Aw, is the country bumpkin going to cry?” Ryker asked sweetly. “Go on ahead, why don’t you run on home to mommy. It’s for your own good, you’ll never make it in this city.” 

“How much do you want to bet on that?” Quinn demanded, fighting back both anger and tears. Right now all she wanted to do was to pay for that ridiculous excuse of a weapon and leave before she ended up killing someone. She endured the taunts from her tormentors, until she finally grabbed the keys off of Sheldon’s belt, unlocked the case that the Splattershot Jr.’s were kept, and pulled out the first one her hands came into contact with. She pulled the box out as well, knowing that the splat bombs were inside it, before pushing her way past Liam and tossing a wad of cash and the keys on the counter. She then stormed towards the exit, attaching her ink tank to her back and hooking it up to her gun.

“Hold it, noob.” Ryker grabbed her shoulder roughly. He would have said more, but Quinn, at this point extremely upset, pointed the Splattershot Jr. at his face and pressed the trigger. A furious storm of black ink shot out, coating the bully from head to toe. He stood there for a moment, before growling and shaking the ink off. Quinn hadn’t stuck around to survey her handiwork, instead making a break for the exit. Zane and Liam caught up to her, however, pinning her arms to the side, while Dashiel pulled the gun, box, and ink tank away from the struggling girl. Ryker stormed over, wrapping his hands around her throat. 

“Do you have a death wish, noob?” He demanded, red in the face. “Well, do you? Huh? You have any idea who you’re messing with?” He shook her a few times. Quinn’s face was turning blue, and though Ryker didn’t like it, he loosened his grip, allowing her to draw a few breathes. 

“Tell you what, I’ll get back to you next week about that.” Quinn croaked out. This only served to infuriate Ryker, who shook her some more before hurtling her to the floor. Quinn’s head smacked against it with a sickly squish, but before she could recover, Ryker had picked her up again and was marching towards the door. 

“Go back to whatever wimpy place you came from, you little punk!” He said in a cruel tone of voice before throwing her out of the door. The girl hit the hard asphalt a few moments later, the gun, splat bombs, and ink tank joining her shortly. The door to the store closed a moment later, the four boys not following her out to continue their punishment. Quinn scrambled to pick up her stuff, shoving the splat bombs into the same bag as her shirt and headband. She picked up her tank, tears springing to her eyes when she saw the long cracks in it. She hadn’t even been in one Turf War yet and it was already broken. 

She did not want to go back into Ammo Knights, however. She shoved the tank onto her back, cringing as she heard the black ink trickling out onto the ground. Picking up her gun, she stumbled off, the night sky soon swallowing her up. She had no idea where she was going, and no place to stay. All that mattered was finding some place she could rest. 

Her battered body, however, was slowly giving up on her. She stumbled several times, before falling to the ground in what she thought was one of the back alleys. Her vision was growing darker, and as she tried - and failed - to get up, it went totally black.


	7. A Date with History

When she woke up the next morning, she was no longer in the cold back alley. Her injuries were bandaged up, both the scratches and cuts she had received while traveling to Inkopolis, and the wounds she had received after the scuffle last night with Ryker and his crew. 

Quinn sat up slowly, her muscles aching in protest. Looks like she wasn’t going to be doing Turf Wars today, no thanks to Ryker and his crew. Oh well, it didn’t really matter; she couldn’t fight until she got her ink tank replaced, and chances were that Sheldon wouldn’t be too happy to see her so quickly again.

She was in what appeared to be a small bedroom, the bed rather comfortable. It was painted a pale blue, decorated with light orange and yellow accents. Not exactly her color scheme, but Quinn didn’t feel like complaining. She was in a shelter, though who’s home this was was a mystery to her. 

Carefully she climbed out of bed, noticing that her new clothes were hanging up in the closet. Whoever had brought her here hadn’t undressed her - something that the teen was thankful for - but she couldn’t go out in this ink-stained outfit. She unwillingly changed into the yellow shirt, pulling the headband on over her tentacles. Her cream basics had been cleaned, the shoes looking as brand new as they had when she had first put them on. 

As she explored the apartment, she found three things. One was that her Splattershot Jr. was on the coffee table in the living room, the splat bombs and ink tank right next to it. The latter of the pair was fully repaired, or had been replaced by her mysterious benefactor. The second was that the fridge and pantry in the kitchen was stocked with food. The third was that she was alone.

The last fact was surprising, but true. She was the only Inkling in the whole apartment. No one was here, besides her. All she had found as evidence that the events of the night before wasn’t just a crazy dream was the note on the kitchen table, along with $10,000 in cold hard cash.

“I found you outside in the rain last night, and you looked like you could use some help, rookie.” Quinn read aloud as she devoured her breakfast. “The apartment’s yours, and you don’t have to pay rent for a whole year. There should be enough food to last you a few weeks, and the store on Five Squid Lane’s open twenty four hours a day. There’s $10,000 in case something comes up. You don’t need to repay me. All I ask is that when you’re a bit better off, and you see a rookie that needs help, give it to them. Someone gave me help when I was a rookie with that same request, and now I’m giving that help to you. Don’t let the cycle end here.”

Quinn frowned, wondering who could have left the letter, before a second page caught her eyes.

“Here’s a tip.” It said. “You can try for the top one hundred if you want, but if you just want to have fun playing Turf Wars, that’s fine too. At the end of the day, it's your choice. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Good luck. Signed, Someone.”

The black tentacled Inkling blinked a few times, before sighing. She certainly was grateful to whoever had pulled her out of the tight spot she had been in, but it was a bit frustrating not to know who her mysterious benefactor was. And just how long had this whole chain of helping rookies been going on. At least three people were a part of it - herself, her benefactor, and her benefactor’s benefactor. Well, actually four, she wasn’t going to let the chain end now.

Quinn sighed again, before storing the cash in the small safe the room had. She was too sore to participate in any battles today, so she was going to do something she had been thinking about since the day before. Yusei had said to stay away from that mysterious old man, but Quinn loved the thrill that danger brought. She had felt different, more alive, during her scuffle with the Octoling, and she thought that perhaps she would get that same rush if she investigated the old man.

Her mind made up, Quinn strapped the ink tank to her back, storing the splat bombs away, and shoving the gun in its holster. She took a deep breath, before pausing as she remembered that Ryker would probably try to fight her if he ran into her today. 

The girl groaned, but didn’t see any other way around it. She didn’t know Inkopolis well enough to sneak around, and she didn’t want to risk being stared at. She closed her eyes and concentrated. A moment later, her tentacles shifted to a pretty pink hue that made her want to gag. But she was counting on the fact that Ryker would be looking for the only black tentacled Inkling around, not one of the dozens of pink tentacled ones. 

Either way, it was time for her to test out that theory. Taking a deep breath, the girl opened the door and walked out, locking it behind her.

....................................................................................................................

Ten minutes later, she was in the middle of a bustling plaza, Inklings of all hues surrounding her. The girl’s plan had worked - there were several other girls dressed exactly like her; right down to the Splattershot Jr. So far she was blending in quite nicely.

The coast was clear, all she had to do was slip through that grate and she’d be home free. She looked both ways, making sure it was safe, before dashing across the plaza…

Only to run into someone. The girl yelped and staggered away, wondering who she had run into.

“Hey, watch where you’re going, will you?” The girl’s blood ran cold as she realized that she had crashed into Ryker. The boy’s friends were stationed nearby, looking a bit surprised. 

“I’m so sorry, sir.” Quinn babbled nervously, though in truth she wanted to strangle the man. “I didn’t see you.” 

“Just be more careful.” Ryker groused. “You rookies are always too impatient for your own good.”

And with that parting thought, he walked off across the square. Quinn blinked a few times, surprised that he hadn’t recognized her.

“Oh, don’t mind him.” She turned to see his friends standing behind her. “He’s just in a bad mood because of last night.”

“What happened?” She asked, curious for their take on it. Dashiel shrugged.

“Oh, we went to Ammo Knights last night, and some rookie mouthed off to him.” He said with another shrug. “He was seeing red by the time we left.”

“Yeah, that girl either was foolish or didn’t care who she was messing with.” Liam added. 

“Oh yeah, you don’t know us.” Zane said. “I’m Zane, the purple guy is Liam, and the light blue one is Dashiel, though everyone calls him Dash. And the orange guy’s name is Ryker, he’s the leader of our squadron. Who are you?”

“Who, me?” Quinn panicked a bit, scrambling for a name. “Um, I’m...I’m Harley. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintances, though I apologize that it was initiated by such an unpleasant circumstance.”

“Hey, don’t worry about.” Dashiel told her, an easygoing smile on his face. “Ryker’s just mad at that rookie from last night. He’s been searching high and low for her all morning, but she just seems to have vanished.”

“That doesn’t seem to be that hard, considering how large this city is.” Quinn pointed out. Liam shook his head.

“Between the four of us, that rookie had black tentacles.” He said, looking around to make sure no one overheard them. 

“Yeah, Sheldon must’ve told someone.” Zane added. “Rumors about her are going around the city like wildfire.” 

“Well, if I see her, I’ll be sure to let you guys know the next time I run into you.” Quinn said, panicking a bit. “I have some things I need to do, okay? Good luck finding her.”

“See you around, Harley.” The boys replied as the girl turned and walked away. She peeked around the corner, sighing in relief as they caught up to Ryker and walked into Inkopolis tower. That was a bit too close for comfort. 

At this point it was nine o'clock, and as she began to drift back towards the manhole, the giant screen Yusei had pointed out to her earlier flickered to life, displaying the Squid Sister’s logo. Then Callie and Marie themselves appeared on the screen, announcing the current stages. Quinn ignored them, knowing that she wasn’t going to participate today. 

“New’s flash! New’s flash!”

“What is it? What is it?”

Callie and Marie’s cries drew her attention, and she looked up at the screen, just in time to see surveillance footage of her arriving in Inkopolis with Yusei playing on the screen. Quinn bit back the curse that sprang to her lips. The last thing she needed was the whole city knowing she was here.

“There have been sightings of a jet black Inkling!” Callie yelped, completely ignoring the fact that she had (mostly) black tentacles. Marie gasped.

“Really?” She asked. Callie nodded empathetically. 

“You heard me right. This security footage was taken late yesterday evening from the camera outside of the Battle Dojo, and has been confirmed as real by several squids who were witness to the girl’s arrival.”

“Stay tuned for more information!” Her partner added. Behind them, the picture on the screen shifted to an image of Inkopolis Tower, with a huge fish coiled around the top.

“In other news - the Great Zapfish has vanished!” Callie screamed. Marie paled, her complexion turning so white it made her gray tentacles seem dark. 

“For real?” She squealed. Callie groaned, a displeased look on her face.

“If we can’t find it, are we gonna lose power?” She asked. Marie shrugged.

“I’m sure it’ll turn up.” She said. “It’s a giant fish, how hard will it be to find?”

“You’re right.” Callie calmed down a bit. “This concludes our news flash. Until next time, everyone...Stay fresh!”

The two girls signed off with their trademark cheer and pose. In the plaza, Inklings began to gravitate towards each other, talking among themselves worriedly, while all who had been prepping for the battles abandoned their plans to mingle in the plaza, talking worriedly with the others. Quinn stole around the edges of the area, heading towards the grate. She caught Ryker’s eye, the man actually alone for once. 

Quinn shrugged, before a devious grin crossed her face. She had found that the grate that the old man had gone down was behind Judd’s sleeping spot, and thus blocked from view. 

She whistled, attracting the attention of not only Ryker, but several of the Inkling’s nearby. He glowered at her, the expression unexpectedly morphing into shock as Quinn dropped the pink hue from her tentacles, displaying the ebony strands for all to see. She then turned and made a beeline for the grate, her tentacles shifting back to pink. 

She could hear folks running after her, but she had a head start. Reaching the grate, she shifted into a squid and fell into it. A few moments later, footsteps came to a stop above her. 

“...Is she...?”

“Did you....”

“...the Black Inkling…”

She could hear snatches of conversation, no doubt wondering where she was, but Quinn wasn’t going to stick around. With a content sigh she let the pink hue fade away, happy to not have to hide her natural coloring any longer. With a determined look on her face she began to walk down the tunnel, heading for whatever awaited her on the other side.


	8. Hundred Best

Turf Wars and Ranked Battles had been cancelled that day in lieu of the Zapfish theft. Not only was the Great Zapfish missing, but also the smaller Zapfish that powered the other Inkling cities. All of Inkling kind was in danger, and the small settlements would be the first to lose power. 

Ryker sighed as he sat in his penthouse suite. As the best player in Inkopolis, he got the twelfth floor of the House of Hundred to himself. He was number one, the shadowy leader of Inkopolis, and he wasn’t looking forward to the day’s events. 

The Zapfish crisis demanded a meeting of himself and the other ninety nine players that lived here, to determine what to do. They were just waiting on about a dozen or so players. Yusei had called to tell him that he and the twins had gotten hung up on the island to the south, and probably wouldn’t be there right at twelve when the meeting began. 

Yusei. Such a peculiar squid. He had been number one, once, and Flora and Fabio had been numbers two and three respectively. That was, until Ryker and his crew overtook them. Most Inklings that got demoted were bitter about it. Yusei and the twins had taken it in stride. They were fine serving under him. 

And now Yusei had found another newcomer, one with potential. Ryker wasn’t going to lie. He had seen something in that girl’s eyes when he had ran into her in Ammo Knights the other day. That girl was good, even if she didn’t know it yet. It would be interesting to see if she would thrive under the pressure she was under, pressure he and his friends were supplementing. Granted, he had lost his head a bit the other night in Ammo Knights, he shouldn’t have let things go that far. 

He had learned from his friends that the girl called herself Harley, though he was unsure if that was her real name. At least that would make it a whole lot easier to track her down. The boy wondered how long it would take for her to crack under pressure. There were only two outcomes: the girl would throw in the towel and head back to her hometown in the country, or she would rise to the occasion and become one of the best players in the city. She had the potential to do it. Who knew, perhaps she would eventually eclipse him.

Looking up at the clock, he sighed as he realized that it was ten minutes to twelve. Ryker stood and walked out of his spacious living quarters, heading for the elevator. A swipe of the key card in the security slot took him down to the massive underground complex, three stories of space below the official basement. The public had no idea that this was where their leaders met. 

The conference room was almost full when he arrived, taking his seat at the head of the room. It was designed in such a way that brought to mind the shape of a congressional room of the ancient land-fish. There was space at the front for the top ten, while the other hundred sat at raised desks, awaiting their leaders. Yusei and the twins had managed to make it on time, and were in their spots. Each one had a tense, nervous look on their faces.

As Ryker took his seat, the room quieted. Moments later the clock rang out twelve. The meeting was officially in session.

“I assume that I don’t need to explain why I’ve brought you all here?” The leader of the city asked. Quiet murmurs of affirmation filled the room, dying down moments later. He sighed. “However, for the record, I’m supposed to say it anyway. The Great Zapfish had been stolen, along with the smaller Zapfish from the other Inkling settlements. We need to figure out what we’re going to do. Langston, you’ve got the information regarding what’s known at the time. Bring everyone up to speed.” 

Langston, a medium blue inkling, stood up and walked down to the center of the room. His gas mask dangled loosely from his hands, and his .52 Gal Deco was within an arm’s reach if he needed it. His green and black armour jacket replica contrasted with the red sea slugs on his feet. He was number eleven, a level 32 player who had inked just shy of seventy five thousand points with his trusty weapon.

“Alright, here’s what we have so far.” He said, everyone’s eyes on him. “Last night, the surveillance cameras in Inkopolis were disabled, every single one of them, for about three hours. These events were repeated in every single Inkling city and town that held a Zapfish. During those three hours, the Zapfish were taken. At this point in time, we have no leads, no idea who the culprits are, and where they took their loot. I’ve informed the authorities, and they will tell us as soon they have any leads. Until then, we can only try to manage the problem. With your permission, Ryker, I’d like to put together a squadron and do our own investigation.”

“Permission granted.” Ryker said, glancing over at Flora. The general rule of thumb was that number six was the secretary at the meetings, copying down everything that was said in both a digital recording and a hard copy. The girl was writing furiously, trying to keep up. Langston returned to his seat, no doubt pondering who he was going to select. 

“As you all can tell, we have little to no information on what happened.” Ryker stated. “Right now, our first priority is figuring out how to ration what electricity we have, as well as how to obtain more electricity. Does anyone have any ideas?”

Silence for a good five minutes, until finally number ninety-nine stood up.

“Permission to address the council?” He asked. 

“Permission granted.” Ryker replied, rolling his eyes at the formalities. They had to act this way, as it went on record, but he hated having to be formal, and he knew that the others weren’t crazy about it either. At least they had finally tossed out the regulation of having to wear suits to the council meetings. 

The ninety-ninth best player stood and began to walk down the steps towards the center. He was a bit taller than average, his tentacles a teal hue. He wore standard beginner gear, though he had done that primarily to blend in with the crowded plaza. His name was Owen, and though he had only been in the city for a few months, he had enough raw talent to make it all the way to number ninety nine. 

“I’m from a small suburb near Splashtown, which is the northernmost settlement we have.” He said as he reached the center of the room. “About twenty kilos to the north, out over the ocean, is a large lightning storm. It’s been there for almost as long as anyone can remember. If we can harness the lightning’s power, we should be able to send the resulting electricity to wherever we need it to go. We’ll need a lot of Inklings to work on it, though.”

The group couldn’t come up with any better options, so Ryker authorized the plan, before telling Owen to leave immediately to get started. The teal Inkling didn’t argue, instead walking out of the chamber. Ryker sighed again, before looking over at Zane. His number two was in charge of determining how to ration the electricity they had, and chances were that no one was going to like what Zane had decided.

After all, no one wanted to put restrictions on Turf Wars.


	9. Octo Valley

The tunnel was longer than Quinn had expected, the girl walking swiftly through the dimly lit corridor. She held the Splattershot Jr. in her hands, her finger poised to press down on the trigger the second something dared to threaten her. By her estimates, it had been about an hour since the Inkling had left the plaza behind, and the inky blackness didn’t show any signs of letting up anytime soon.

It was about ten minutes before she saw a glimmer of light. Her spirit’s raised by this new development, the girl ran towards it, eventually coming to a screeching halt. Above her was a grate, the light shining down through the wire mesh. It appeared to be the end of the underground tunnel. Now, the only question was whether or not she should go up…

“Th...th.. the Oc...oc...Octarians are coming! Noooooooooooo!” The long drawn out wail froze Quinn to her very core. Without pausing to think, she shifted to a squid and super jumped through the grate, landing in a ready position. Her gun was drawn, and she looked around the area in a slight panic, ready for anything.

It was old, decrepit, run down, ancient...all those words and more could be used to describe the area she was in. A shack was nearby, just as run down as her surroundings, and an old geezer that appeared to be high was standing next to it, leaning on a cane.

He wore a blue cap, leaned on an old bamboo cane, and wore a tattered suit with medals adorning the front. His skin was pale and wrinkled, his hair gray, and his beard white. His eyes bulged out of his head, so much so that the black ring around them was almost non existent, and they appeared to be touching. 

“Oh, uh, hi...Guess I lost my cool for a minute there, bucko.” He said, interrupting Quinn as she demanded to know what was going on. “Sorry about that.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’m Cap’n Cuttlefish, leader of the legendary Squidbeak Splatoon.”

“My name’s Quinn.” The girl replied, holstering her gun. “I’m new around these parts.”

“Really, bucko?” The captain sounded surprised at that. He had seen the way the girl had burst out of that grate, ready for action, gun poised to fire, a splat bomb already armed. “Cause the way you were acting gave the appearance of a seasoned veteran.” 

“Really?” Quinn didn’t seem to realize that what she had done was so special. She had heard a cry from this old man, one that she interpreted as him needing help, and thus had acted accordingly.

“That look in your eye...it’s the look I’ve been looking for.” The old man said softly. “The Great Zapfish that powers Inkopolis has been squidnapped!”

“I know, I saw the news report.” Quinn said patiently, still a bit unsure if this man was alright. He was acting crazy. And though she had heard of the Squidbeak Splatoon before, she was pretty sure all the members had died out long ago. The Great Turf War was over a hundred years ago, and the Squidbeak Splatoon were all in their thirties when they fought. That meant that Cap’n Cuttlefish had to be at least one hundred and thirty years old, probably older. She knew that Inkling could live for a long time, but not as long as the captain had.

“The Octarians are the culprits, I just know it!” The old man cried. “See, I’m actually the only remaining member of the Splatoon. Amos and the others died a long time ago...everyone thought I was going crazy, ranting on how the Octarians would come back. So I just up and left Inkopolis, decided to move out here to Octo Valley and keep watch over the place, just in case the Octarians decided to rise up again. I’d bet you my hat that the Octarians stole the Zapfish, but if I went to the city and told everyone, they wouldn’t believe me. They all think that the Octarians are extinct.” 

Here he paused, looking at Quinn cautiously.

“I bet you don’t believe me, either.” He muttered. “Youngsters never listen to their elders…”

“Oh, I believe you.” Quinn reassured him. “I believe you because I’ve run into a group of Octolings.” 

Briefly she narrated the events that had happened on her way to the city, the captain listening with rapt attention as she told of taking down the Octoling scout, robbing her of her weapon, and then finally knocking the girl out. She spoke of her daring escape from the Octoling’s companions, though she did not embellish her tale with fancy notions of heroism. When she finished about ten minutes later, Cap’n Cuttlefish seemed extremely impressed.

“You say that was your first time holding a weapon?” He asked. Quinn nodded. The old man appeared to think things over for a moment, before nodding.

“Tell you what, bucko.” He said. “How’d you like to help me take down the Octarians? I wouldn’t normally dream of asking a youngster like you; but Agents 1 and 2 aren’t able to do that much here, and the special squad travels around Inkling territory on scouting missions. I need someone who is going to be in the area at all times so we can get a handle on this problem. It’s all hands on deck, bucko, and right now we’re short a pair. Think you’d be willing to help?” 

“I’m in.” Quinn replied. “So, when do I start?” The Captain grinned.

“Well, let’s get you equipped, and I’ll teach you the basics first.” He said. “By my estimates, there are almost thirty Zapfish missing, not counting the giant one besides. Hidden around this valley are kettles. Octarians live underground, and they get around quickly by using a network of kettles. Each one should take you near one of the Zapfish. Your task is to infiltrate the strongholds and retrieve the Zapfish.”

“Will I be working alone?” Quinn asked as she darted behind a small partition to change into the Hero Suit that the Captain had provided her. The headphones nestled over her ears, glowing an electric blue, had to be the coolest part of the ensemble, though the neon yellow and black jacket and matching boots weren’t half bad. 

“For now, yes.” Her new leader said. “Agents 1 and 2 are providing disaster relief in the city right now, and I have no idea when the crack shot team will show up. Last I heard of them was a few days ago, and they were going to do some espionage in the south. No, it’s just you and me right now, bucko, though the special forces might come back early due to the crisis.”

“Got it.” Quinn replied as she hung up her normal attire, placing her Splattershot Jr. on the shelf, along with her splat bombs and bubbler. “What’s my weapon, sir?”

“When the special forces come back, they’ll teach you how to use a charger and roller, as well as a few other tips and tricks.” The man informed her as he pulled out a powerful looking black and yellow gun. “This here’s the Hero Shot. It’s a mid-range gun, similar to an Octoshot and the Splattershot Jr. you have there. It was the first of Amos’s last inventions before he died. It runs on power eggs.”

“Power eggs?” Quinn wondered as she hooked the weapon up to her tank. The old man nodded.

“Power eggs are at this point obsolete, especially with the technological advancements of the past few years, bucko.” He said. “They’re orange spheres that you can use to enhance your weapons. They’re rare up on the surface, but underground they’re easy to find. Just store them up for now, and when Elite Agent 4 comes back he’ll upgrade your weapons for you. Normally I would use the fancier weapons that are common nowadays, but the guns that Amos’s grandson makes wouldn’t handle the wear and tear this gun’s going to see. Power egg technology isn’t as cutting edge, but it’s a whole lot more durable and reliable.” 

“Understood, sir.” Quinn saluted the man. “Anything else to go, sir, or shall I head into the field?”

“That’s all for now.” Cap’n Cuttlefish replied. “Don’t forget, you have splat bombs you can use in a pinch. From this day forth, you are Agent 3 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon. Alright, soldier. Move out!”

“Sir, yes sir!”


	10. Octoling Civilization

If Inkopolis was a beacon of shining light and hope, then the Octopolis was the epitome of shadows and agony. This dark city directly below Inkopolis was the center of Octarian civilization, the largest city below the surface. The Inklings were so smug, they thought that they had eradicated the Octarians for all eternity. They had no idea their enemy lurked right beneath the surface, save for a few small outposts located on uninhabited islands in the center of the sea..

Since the Great Turf War of a hundred years ago, the Octarians had rose up from the ashes of their former glory, creating new technological innovations that made their underground stronghold just as advanced, if not more advanced, than Inkopolis. Spreaders insured that the purple ink that was the standard choice for most troops could quickly be spread on the ground, while Squee G’s were quick to vacuum up any foreign ink. Invisible paths were a hazard that any intruder would have to overcome, while up on the surface there were flooders just waiting to rain down ink on any unsuspecting spies. 

It was in this very world that the Octarians lived, ruled over by Octavio, their leader. The old man had been around since the Great Turf War, then the young prince of the Octarians. His father had been killed during the last fight, destroyed by the Squidbeak Splatoon. Octavio had, at the tender age of thirteen and a half, negotiated the surrender of the Octarians, but before a deal could be reached, his people had been massacred. He had led the survivors here, beneath the surface, where they would dwell in darkness until they were strong enough to strike back. 

And strike back they did. It was child’s play to sneak into Inkopolis, as well as Inkling settlements all over the land, swiping the Zapfish from their clutches. For the first time the underground cities were brightly lit, the Zapfish now being used to power the shadowy counterpart to Inkling civilization. For once the citizens of the Octarian Empire were joyous, buoyed by the hope that precious electricity brought.

But not all were joyful. At this very moment Octavio was in a meeting with his generals and most trusted lieutenant. There was Otto, leader of all ariel divisions, and Polipo, head of all ground troops. Odette - whose black ink and tentacles showed that she led the espionage unit - lounged in the back, still wondering how Octavia could have blown up her gun as to not leave a trace of it. The gun and the ink tank were both gone, but the splat bombs were untouched. It was quite the mystery.

Currently it was only the three of them. Melody, the lieutenant in charge of special weaponry, was out on assignment, as well as Rhythmi, her twin sister, who directed the Octosnipers and Octostrikers. The others, a smattering of various Octarians, also had their own tasks. 

The only non-military personal in the room was Oda, Octavio’s only child. The king’s daughter was young, only a toddler, but ever since Octavio’s father had died the king had made sure that his only child was within eyesight. He had always blamed himself for his father’s death, and figured that if he had been there, his father would still have been alive. Octavio had kept his daughter close ever since, terrified that what had happened to his father would happen to his daughter. He didn’t want to lose them both.

Oda was busy drawing in a large book, crayons strewed about the floor. So far she had drawn a few self portraits and a rather bad picture of the gathering. She was lost in her own world, happily content. She had no idea what her father was talking about, nor did she care. Life was fine.

For Octavio, however, life was less than fine. He glanced at Polipo, his displeasure clearly showing.

“What do you mean, we’ve misplaced one of the Zapfish?” He asked in a deadly calm voice. Polipo shuddered slightly, knowing that the Octarian that faced the King’s wrath did not have a good chance of living to tell the tale. He had to choose his next words carefully.

“It was the Inklings, sir!” He blubbered. “A pitch black Inkling! She snuck into our base and stole the Zapfish right out from under our noses! My first division has been massacred!”

“According to the report, the entire first division got knocked unconscious.” Otto said in a not-so-helpful tone. Polipo glared at him, while Odette sighed.

“Really, Polipo.” She replied in a clipped tone. “I knew you always had a flair for being dramatic, but this is ridiculous. A black inkling? Such a thing doesn’t exist. You know as well as I do that the insufferable Squid Sisters dye their tentacles. And suppose that an Inkling did manage to sneak into our base. How did they get there? The only person with an inkling of who might have taken the Zapfish would be Cap’n Cuttlefish, and who would believe that senile old fool?”

On the outside, Odette portrayed an image of scorn. But secretly her mind was flashing back to when Octavia had been knocked out on their mission. There had been no colored ink, save for black ones, and since Octavia hadn’t been killed, she had just assumed that the girl had blown up her gun and knocked herself out. But a black Inkling...that could explain everything. Her mind racing, she looked up as Otto began to ridicule Polipo again, while the King sighed and looked out the window. Clearly he was displeased with their behavior.

“Sir, perhaps there is some truth as to what Polipo claims.” She said suddenly. “I can sneak on over to the Inkling’s base of operations and check it out.”

Everyone looked at her - Oda in curiosity, Polipo in gratitude, Otto in shock, and Octavio in surprise. Odette shrugged defensively.

“Suppose Polipo is telling the truth.” She explained. “Either way, we can at least confirm if Cuttlefish is up to anything.”

Octavio sighed, before giving his consent. Odette saluted before walking out of the room. She had a little bit of espionage to do.


	11. Back to Inkopolis

Quinn whistled a jaunty tune as she walked back towards Cap’n Cuttlefish’s hut, the Zapfish safely in her arms. The little guy was finally calming down, happy to be liberated. Her first mission had been a large success. 

With a sigh, she checked the collar around the Zapfish’s neck. The tag was dyed purple, and Pallet Town was clearly written on it. She figured that it belonged to one of the smaller settlements, but would ask the captain when she got back. 

Speaking of the old man, he was sitting outside his hut, wide eyes searching the surrounding area. When he spotted Quinn, a large grin broke out on his face.

“You made it back alive, bucko!” He whooped as Quinn came to a stop in front of him. The girl saluted as well as she could with her arms full. The grin on her face showed that the girl was quite happy with her new job.

“Sir, Agent 3 of the Squidbeak Splatoon reporting in, sir!” She said. 

“At ease, soldier!” Cap’n Cuttlefish replied as he took the Zapfish from the girl’s arms. Quinn relaxed, before following the older Inkling into the hut. 

“If we hit the Octarians again today, they’ll be more suspicious than normal.” Cuttlefish mused. “We need to work quickly, but at the same time, we don’t want to arouse undue surveillance. Give me your number bucko, and I’ll call you in the event of an attack.” 

“Alright, sir.” Quinn replied. “Do you want me to return the Zapfish to Pallet Town?” 

“Nah, the squadron’s back in town, so I’ll have them run it over.” Cuttlefish said with a shake of his head. “Good work today, bucko. Go have some fun, okay?”

“Sure thing, Captain.” She replied before stepping back behind the partition and changing back into her beginning gear. She placed the Hero Shot back on the rack, the bombs safely stowed in the ammo chest. Pulling her gun off the shelf, she slid it into the holster, Her splat bombs placed in her pocket, she changed her color to a midnight blue Inkling. Ryker would be expecting a pink Inkling, any blue ones should escape his notice.

Either way, she had to start fighting turf wars, and quickly. Eventually Ryker would wise up to the fact that the black tentacled Inkling always wore beginner gear, and he’d have a lot more luck tracking her down.

....................................................................................................................

As she slipped out of the plaza, someone grabbed her arm and dragged her into an alleyway. Quinn opened her mouth to scream.

“Hey, Quinn, it’s just me.” Yusei hissed. Quinn relaxed, before sighing.

“You scared me.” She muttered with a glare at the other midnight blue inkling. Yusei shrugged.

“Sorry.” He whispered. “So, what’re you doing hanging around the sewers?” 

Quinn panicked, fear plainly showing on her face for a moment. She couldn’t let him know about the Octarians. Yes, Yusei was her friend, but she had been sworn to secrecy about her mission.

“Oh, I was being chased by a few other Inklings earlier, and it was the first place I could find to hide.” She said nonchalantly. “No big deal, I know better than to hang out in there just for kicks. So, what’re you doing here? I thought that you and the twins had business down south.

“Um...something came up…” Yusei replied. “I had to come back, my parents ran into a slight problem. Hey, a Turf Wars is going to start soon. You should go and participate. One can never play enough Turf Wars, after all.

“Okay…” Quinn wasn’t convinced that Yusei was telling the truth, but she didn’t want to appear suspicious. With a grin, she walked out of the alley and towards Inkopolis Tower. Yusei breathed a quick sigh of relief, before looking around. He snuck back over to the grate and shifted into a squid, falling into the sewers below.

“What took you so long?” Flora wondered as Yusei met up with the twins. Yusei shrugged.

“Quinn was hiding out in the sewers.” He said after greeting Fabio. “I’m guessing she didn’t find anything.” He sighed as the trio began walking. “The Captain has a Zapfish for us to return. We need to get it back to whatever town it belongs in as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, that’s all fine and dandy, but who snuck into the Octarian’s base and snagged it? Fabio inquired. Yusei shrugged. He wasn’t sure, the Captain hadn’t told them who the new recruit was. Which begged the question, who had decided to join their side?

....................................................................................................................

Quinn came to a stop outside of Inkopolis Tower, a determined look on her face. A bulletin board showed that the current stages were Blackbelly Skatepark and Kelp Dome. Easy stages for a newbie like herself. She hoped that her team did well on them. 

She grimaced and dropped her midnight blue hue, displaying her black tentacles for all to see. There was nothing she could do about it - rules stated that any Inkling registering for Ink Battles had to revert to their natural coloring - but the less she had to walk around with her black tentacles in view, the better.

Pointedly ignoring the whispers and stares, Quinn walked over to one of the screens, registering for a Turf War. The Kelp Dome was already filled up, but there was one last slot for the next battle in Blackbelly Skatepark. With a slight amount of hesitation, she entered her name. 

“Registration complete, please proceed to the stage.”

Quinn shrugged, before walking over to a launchpad labeled with the appropriate stage name. She took a deep breath, before shifting into a squid and swimming onto the launchpad. She tensed up for a brief moment, and then suddenly she was flying through the air, the city far below her as she soared towards the park in the distance.


	12. The First Turf War

Quinn landed in the center of the Skatepark, managing to stay on her feet. With all of the super jumps that she had to do in Octo Valley, she was getting to be a lot better at it. 

“Purrfect...looks like everyone’s here…” A fat black and white cat said as Quinn walked over to join the seven other Inklings nearby, paling as she recognized Ryker and his gang.

Unfortunately, they recognized her, too.

“You!” Ryker roared as he stormed over to her. Quinn groaned, the look on her face akin to one that adorned the features of someone who was just forced to eat something very unpleasant.

“Nice to see you’ve expanded your vocabulary.” Quinn muttered dryly. “So, who’s on who’s team?” 

“Meow...your team assignments are on the board.” Judd replied as he scampered over to the judging area. “Good luck.”

Quinn was the closest to the team assignments, reading them off to the others.

“Ryker, Liam, Andres and Rebecca are on the yellow team.” She read aloud. “Dashiell, Zane, Mia, and I are on the purple team.”

Ryker stomped off in disgust, his current team behind them. Quinn glanced uneasily over at Zane and Dashiell as Mia ran off towards the purple spawn point, her mint green tentacles shifting to a deep purple. Zane rolled his eyes and walked after the girl, while Dash sighed.

“Look, I know it probably won’t make up for earlier, but I’m sorry about what happened in Ammo Knights.” He said. “Liam and Zane feel bad about it too, but they tend to have a bit more pride than I do. They aren’t going to be apologizing anytime soon.”

“Yeah, but is Zane going to work with me or not?” Quinn asked as they joined the others at the spawn point, their tentacles shifting to match the purple hue of the others. Dash looked over at Zane, who sighed but nodded. His friend grinned.

“He’s on board.” The boy said. Quinn sighed in relief. 

“So, anyone know any tricks for this place?” Mia butted in nervously. The girl wore the same gear as Quinn, and carried the same weapon, which meant that she was a beginner. Dash looked over at Zane, who sighed.

“We don’t want Ryker or Liam to get the high ground, otherwise we’re toast.” He said as he adjusted something on his Luna Blaster Neo. “Ryker’s got a Hydra Splatling, and Liam has an E-liter 3K Scope. They’ll be able to reach almost the entire stage from that point. But since you two have bubblers, you can be shielded from them for a short time. Just be careful, okay?”

“Match starting in three...two...one...go!” 

With a loud buzzer, the timer began to count down from three minutes. The purple team ran off their spawn location, firing ink left and right. Dash and Zane headed for the center tower, hoping to get there before Ryker and Liam could claim it. Mia began to spray the entire area around the spawn point with purple ink. Quinn considered joining her, but a back alley caught her eye. A quick glance at the digital map of the stage high above her showed that the others had yet to touch it. Better yet, she had a direct path to enemy territory.

Her mind made up, she waved at Mia and ran towards the passageway, a grin on her face. Purple ink sprayed out of the Splattershot Jr, Quinn’s special gauge quickly filling up. The girl grinned, before diving into the ink and swimming to the next area. 

As she reverted to her humanoid form, something crashed into her. It hurt, a lot, and suddenly she was back at the spawn point, a lingering soreness in her back showing that she had been splatted. Judging from the look she had caught on Ryker’s face, he had done it.

Quinn scowled, before looking up at the map. It was pretty close, and there was only one and a half minutes left on the timer. The actions of the next few moments would determine the outcome of the game.

But no matter what the girl did, Ryker and Liam kept on splatting her. As Quinn respawned for the ninth time, she noticed the button on her Splattershot Jr that activated the bubbler. The switch was unable to be activated at this point, but once her special gauge filled up, however…well, that was a different story.

There wasn’t a moment to lose. Quinn began to spray ink wildly, covering up all available turf. It was a drop in the ocean of ink, but each drop counted, and that was what Quinn was counting on.

With a flash, the special gauge filled up completely. The Inkling girl smirked before stealthily creeping over to the center tower. Dash and Zane caught the grin on her face, and began to taunt Ryker and Liam, drawing their attention from the girl. 

Quinn shot a path of ink up the side of the tower, before swimming up it. It was now or never, there were only thirty seconds left, and the clock was rapidly counting down. 

With one last push the girl sprang up onto the ledge, gun blazing. Ryker and Liam - who were standing next to a strange machine - were surprised, but to their credit the boys recovered quickly and began to fire. Quinn slammed down on the button, and her bubbler sprang to life. The girl splatted Ryker, before Liam unexpectedly was taken care of. Quinn looked to her side to see Mia standing nearby.

“Well, I couldn’t let you have all the fun.” She said with a grin as the bubbler faded. 

“Just don’t stand there!” Zane yelled. “Get going!”

Mia nodded before suddenly she was splatted, the little yellow ghost zipping off back to the spawn point. Liam smirked, before taking aim at Quinn. A quick glance behind her showed that Ryker had managed to get back to the tower.

“Here’s a quick lesson, Rookie.” He said as he stepped away from the now broken machine. “You can super jump to more than just teammates.” 

With that he took aim. Quinn swore under her breath. She was trapped between Ryker and Liam. There was only one option. 

As the two fired, Quinn dove off the tower, the training she had received from Yusei and the experience in Octo Valley kicking in. Both of them missed, though Quinn knew that that trick wouldn’t work twice. Quinn glanced up at the clock. Ten seconds, nine, eight…

Quinn ran towards Liam, spraying ink so that eventually she was standing on a single dot of purple in the midst of a sea of yellow. This was going to hurt.

“No way out, rookie.” Ryker grinned as he charged up his Hydra Splatling. Liam similarly powered up his E-Liter 3K Scope. 

“Kid, move out of the way!” Zane yelled. Quinn glanced back at him, a crazed grin on her face.

“Get a move on, Zane.” She replied. “I’ve got everything under control.”

Five seconds left…

The two boys fired, and time seemed to slow. Quinn dropped a splat bomb, and the ink from the two weapons hit her just as the timer hit zero. Moments later, the bomb blew up, coating a small area with ink. Quinn was knocked to the ground, momentary agony consuming her. She shook her head and turned into a squid, sinking into the purple ink momentarily. She reappeared in an instant, the yellow ink completely cleaned off.

There was nothing they could do now, save for wait. Dash ran over and helped the girl up, before the two teams met in the center of the map. 

There was nothing they could do now. They could only wait as Judd began to tally the score. He began to dance a bit, before pulling out a purple flag and pointing it Quinn’s team. They had won, 52.78% to 51.29%. Ryker stared at Quinn in shock and what perhaps was anger, before storming off, Liam right behind him. Zane walked after them, while Dash hung back.

“Nice job you two.” He said. “If you’re short a man on a team, give me a call.”

He handed them slips of paper with his number on it and darted off after his friends. Mia and Quinn also exchanged numbers, before the former left for another match. 

“Meow...Congratulations…” Judd said as he handed the black Inkling a sack of coins. “Good job on your first battle.”

Quinn eagerly accepted the money, before heading over to the launchpad that replaced the spawn points. A quick super jump brought her back to the center of the plaza, her tentacles still dyed purple. Wasting no time, the girl walked to the apartment building she was staying in.


	13. A Break in Routine

Over the next few days Quinn fell into a basic routine. Wake up early, make a quick breakfast, go to Octo Valley, take back another Zapfish, do a few Turf Wars, avoid Ryker’s group, go home, eat dinner, gall in bed exhausted, wake up, and repeat.

She had run into Mia a few more times, done a few Turf Wars with her, but they were just friends, not close friends. She hadn’t seen Yusei or the twins in a while, and the girl wondered how the two were doing. They seemed nice enough, but the way Yusei had been acting earlier was suspicious, to say the least.

As she jogged down the sewer tunnel towards Octo Valley, her mind was occupied with the next mission. She had saved three Zapfish already, so far thwarting the Octarians left and right. It was incredible that she hadn’t gotten caught yet. But her luck could run out in her next mission. She couldn’t afford to let herself relax.

Soon the telltale light filled the tunnel, bathing the area in a warm glow. Quinn smiled before coming to a stop under the grate, pulling out her gun. With a press of the trigger she shot a trail of ink up the wall. A quick shift into a squid and soon she was swimming up the new path, emerging into the sunlight.

“Agent 3 reporting in, Sir!” She said as she snapped to attention. Cap’n Cuttlefish saluted her briefly in return, before motioning to the girl that she should go get changed. It only took a few minutes before the girl was dressed in the Hero Suit, her Hero Shot clasped in her hand. 

“What’s the mission for today, Sir?” Quinn asked. Cap’n Cuttlefish frowned for a moment, before nodding once.

“The Boss Kettle is open.” He said. “Be careful, bucko. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

Quinn shrugged before running off into the valley, bypassing the first three kettles and heading to the one that rested on a purple pillow. Quinn shrugged and rolled her eyes when she noticed the silk embellishment. Really, the Octarians were stealing Zapfish, yet they had enough purple silk to dress up rusted old kettles? Seemed like a waste of resources to Agent 3.

The Inkling sighed and looked back at the Captain’s shack. If she was going to turn back, now was the time. But she really didn’t have a choice. She had to get the Zapfish back at all costs. Turning into a black squid, she slipped into the kettle, swimming through the transportation network the Octarians used. There was no time to waste, she had a Zapfish to save. 

With a slight amount of hesitation, she dropped into the arena, looking around quickly. The Inkling was alone for now, though in the distance she could see a large box in the midst of a circular battlefield. She herself was on a small path above it - close enough to look out around the stadium, but far away enough that she wouldn’t be able to make the jump safely.

That was an easy problem to solve, however. There was a launchpad nearby, and she ran over to the device, shifting to a squid and super jumping to the larger area. She landed, but even then there wasn’t any movement. The cube still didn’t move. Quinn shrugged before covering the area around her with sticky black ink. 

As she was thus occupied, however, she was unaware that someone was watching her.

High above the stadium, Odette was hidden safely in the rafters, watching as the intruder spread the black ink around the area. So, Polipo had been telling the truth after all, a black Inking had been sneaking into their base of operations and stealing the Zapfish. Briefly Odette wondered if this same Inkling was the one to knock out Octavia and relieve her of her gun and ink tank. It would explain the absence of any normal colored ink, and how the bombs had been left untouched. 

She had seen the girl take back two Zapfish, though she hadn’t stopped her yet. She was a spy, not a direct warrior. Besides, the first of the Great Octo Weapons would be sufficient to stop the rookie.

Quinn was getting frustrated. Ten minutes and yet she hadn’t run into any enemies. Sighing, she walked towards the cube, hoping that the higher ground would allow her to see something she might have missed.

As she drew near, however, the cube began to shake. From the ceiling a Zapfish in it’s light bulb shaped cage floated down from the ceiling. It neared the cube, the poor little critter caught inside of it absolutely terrified. Quinn shrugged, before raising her gun. This was turning out to be easier than she thought it would have been.

Just as she was about to fire, a large purplish-reddish tentacle with a green scar shaped like an X burst out of the cube, wrapping around the helpless Zapfish. It pulled it into the device, before the cube stood up and shook itself a few times. Quinn paled as intelligent eyes stared back at her, and the Great Octostomp roared before rushing toward her. It leapt high into the air, about to land right on top of the shocked girl. 

Quinn did the only thing she could do. The girl dove into the ink and swam off. With a thunderous crash the Octostomp smashed into the ground, legs flailing as the machine struggled to right itself. The force of the blow caused the octopus tentacle to appear from the top of the machine. From her hiding place, Quinn tossed out a few bombs, the explosives splatting the area with black ink. Some of it stuck to the Octostomp’s side, giving her an idea.

Taking a deep breath, the girl shifted into her humanoid form, attracting the creature’s attention. As soon as it recovered from its failed attack, the beast ran towards her, even as Quinn coated one of its sides with pitch black ink. She dove back into the murky substance, swimming away from the area of impact. A miniature earthquake shook the area as Octostomp landed. Quinn didn’t remain in hiding, however. She darted over to the fallen machine, jumping over the purple ink the creature had stamped onto the ground.

Yusei had taught her that she could swim up walls. Was she wrong to assume that the Octostomp’s side any different? 

Soon she was on top of the cube, the tentacle thrashing about. It seemed to be this beast’s only weak point, as there was no other reason that the girl could think of for the weapon to hide it. She coated it with the sticky black ink, eventually causing it to burst. The cube rumbled, and a fountain of purple ink shot out from the metal structure.

“So not cool.” Quinn yelped as the ink began to rain down on her. She quickly shifted into a squid and super jumped to safety, sinking back into the black ink to clean herself off. The Octostomp managed to right itself, some of its armour falling off as it roared a mighty roar. All the ink of the ink that coated the arena, both purple and black, was blasted off. 

Quinn wasted no time coating an area around her and sinking into it. She stealthily swam around the battlefield, emerging from the ink unexpectedly to toss out a bomb. Without waiting to see where it would land, she dove back into the murky liquid, just barely escaping detection. 

This went on for quite some time, until finally she had an area that she deemed sufficient covered. Taking a deep breath to steady her rattled nerves, she allowed herself to shift back to a kid, the Octostomp’s eyes narrowing in hatred as it caught sight of her. With a bellow it charged towards her, ready to stomp her into oblivion. 

Quinn waited for the creature to leap into the air before swimming away, emerging just outside of the blast radius. Her gun was already in the process of firing, and as the creature crashed face first onto the ground, she had already coated one of its sides with ink. A quick swim and she was on top, her sights now set on the tentacle. 

It popped rather easily, and again she jumped away as the fountain of purple ink sprayed into the air. Another roar from the boss, and even more armour shattered, revealing the electric wires that powered the beast. Again, the arena was cleansed from the ink, and Quinn suddenly felt terrified as the Octostomp ran towards her, not even giving her a chance to lay down some ink. Quinn turned and ran as quickly as she could, the Octostomp leaping high into the air. 

Just as she was about to escape, she tripped and rolled off the edge of the field, entering a recessed area. Up above the Octostomp smashed down, either unable or unwilling to follow her. The most it could do was fix her with a glare as the girl caught her breath, her nerves totally shot. A euphoric laugh bubbled from her lips, the girl just relieved to still be alive. 

When she finally calmed herself, she splattered ink everywhere and hid in it. Above her she could hear the earth shattering thumps as the Octostomp lost interest in waiting for her and went back to the center of the raised arena. 

Quinn inked a path up the wall, before tossing a bomb out for good measure. Like the grunts, this thing seemed to be attracted to motion, and was quite keen on examining everything that moved. Perhaps she could use that to her advantage. 

Taking a deep breath, she slowly swam her way to the top, tossing out bombs to ink a large area for her to swim around in. It was now or never. She had to make her move, before she lost her nerve.

Soon she had a long rectangle, the perfect path to escape down. The black Inkling swam towards one end, took one last breath, and stood up.

Instantly, she was in the monster’s sight. With one mighty roar it lept into the air from where it stood, sailing halfway across the arena before smashing into the ground. Alas he still had failed to catch the slippery Inkling, who had dodged at the last moment and was inking one final path up the side. This one took her longer to traverse, due to the moving panels the beast now had, and by the time she was up top the weapon was already rumbling. There was no time to lose. Quinn pressed down on the trigger, the black substance squirting out of the nozzle to cover the tentacle. With a messy pop it burst, and then the whole cube exploded into a pile of spare parts, splattering black ink everywhere. 

Quinn groaned as she hit the ground. There had been no time to get away, and thus she had been sent sailing from the explosion as well. A moment later something large landed on her, and the girl quickly squirmed her way out from underneath the Octoling pilot, pointing her Hero Shot at the unconscious guy. Well, at least she thought it was a guy. He was wearing his tentacles in a fashion reminiscent of male Inklings, so Quinn was going to assume that he was a guy. 

It didn’t really matter, as he was out cold. Still, Quinn carefully kept the Octoling in her sights as she collected the power eggs lying around, and did a standard search of the the area for any other Octarians. There were none that she could see, though she did find a tattered scroll. It seemed interesting, so she picked it up and stowed it away in her jacket. She’d ask the captain about it later.

There didn’t seem to be anything else to do, so Agent 3 set her sights on the Zapfish. It only took a moment before the poor creature’s prison was burst open, and the girl quickly extracted the now calm creature from its cage. 

High above, Odette watched with a frown as the lone intruder snuck off into the shadows and vanished, Zapfish in tow. She waited a few minutes for good measure before making her way down to the battlefield, ignoring the black ink. The Octostomp was destroyed, Xana had failed in his mission, and another Zapfish had been taken back by the Inklings.

The king would not be happy to hear about this.


	14. A New Twist

Quinn groaned as she walked back towards Cap’n Cuttlefish’s hut. She was sore all over from the Octostomp’s explosion, and the fact that its pilot had landed on top of her didn’t help things. Her muscles ached, and though the battle seemed to have been over and done with in mere moments she had been running around for the better part of an hour trying to beat the thing, and then it had taken another two hours to get back to the surface. Next time she went on a mission, she was going to make sure she had a map.

With a sigh she handed over the Zapfish, before bidding the Cap’n adieu. The exhausted girl turned her feet towards the sewer, and began the long trek back to Inkopolis. As she walked, her mind was focused on her latest exploits. 

She certainly was a natural at fighting. Though there had been some close calls, there had been no major troubles. But that Octostomp...it was terrifying. Massive beyond all belief, a crushing machine that would not be denied. It obviously was not sentient - how else would it have fallen for the easy trick of tracking a bomb instead of her? No, that was behavior that the standard troops would use. The Octoling pilot was easy to fool. 

But still, the fact that the Octarians were capable of creating machines as fearsome as the Octostomp was troublesome. And if they had made the Octostomp, then who knew how many more there were out there?

All too soon, however, she had to put those thoughts out of her mind. Shifting her tentacles to an orange that would make Ryker jealous, she slipped out of the sewers and into the city. The back alley was dark enough that she was confident that no one had seen her rejoin the city. With a sly grin that quickly melted away to a nervous smile, she walked into the plaza, easily blending into the crowd. Everything was going well. Her apartment building was in sight, and then she’d be able to go and recuperate. No missions for her for the next few days - she was going to be lucky if she could walk. 

Sadly, it seemed that her hopes were going to be dashed. As she turned onto her street, a deep green inkling ran towards her, coming to a screeching halt in front of the startled girl.

“Are you Harley?” She gasped out as she caught her breath. Quinn stared at her for a moment, drawing a blank, before recalling what she had told Dash and the others earlier.

“Yeah, I’m Harley.” Quinn said with a shrug. “Who want’s to know?”

“Oh, I’m just a messenger.” The unnamed Inkling replied with a shrug. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out two envelopes and handed them to Quinn. “A few boys asked me to give these to you. Looks like you’ve got some admirers.” 

“Thanks…?” Quinn wasn’t sure if this was totally normal, but there was no reason to not trust the girl. She handed her a few coins as thanks, before walking off towards her apartment. The girl watched her go for a moment, before pulling out her squid phone.

“Hey Ryker.” She said as she made her first call. “How’s things back at the house? Everything’s a go on this end - she’s gotten the message. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to track her down, I spent the entire day running all over the city. Please tell me I’m going to get reimbursed for the time I spent, I could have made a couple ten thousand coins from Turf Wars had I played...Okay, I understand. Thanks, see you later. Bye.”

She hung up, before switching over to her text messages. As she walked through the rapidly emptying street, she selected a conversation and shot off a quick message to her friend.

“L - Message delivered. She seems nice. U picked a good rookie to help.”

....................................................................................................................

Quinn let herself back into her apartment, sighing contentedly as she let her natural colors assert themselves. It was getting tiresome to walk around Inkopolis in disguises, it was one more thing to keep track of. She made herself a sandwich to tame the rumbling monster that currently inhabited her belly, before taking a quick shower. As she stood in the stall, letting the warm water-diluted ink cascade over her aching muscles, her mind once again drifted to the Octarians. She had no idea why they had taken the Zapfish, but there had to be a cause for it. 

She groaned and pushed those thoughts aside as she reluctantly got out and dried off. She pulled on her pajamas, before walking out to the living area. She was still starving - fighting Octarians certainly worked up an appetite, so she made another sandwich, before sitting on the couch. The news was playing softly, and ironically enough it was about her. The anchors were currently debating if the whole thing was a hoax or not. Quinn snickered softly as a guest geneticist came on and soundly declared that there was no way for a black inkling to exist. It just wasn’t possible. 

The girl quickly grew tired of their bickering, however, and instead pulled out the two letters she had received earlier. Selecting one at random, she opened the envelope and emptied the contents. 

“You think you’re so hot, huh rookie?” She read as her face began to turn red with anger. “Two weeks from now at midnight, my crew and I are going to be in the Kelp Dome. We’re challenging you to a rumble. Come alone, and come armed. If you can beat us, I might acknowledge that what happened at the skatepark was more than just a fluke.”

“Oh, Ryker is going to be in for a big surprise in two weeks.” Quinn murmured. She may not have done a lot of Turf Wars, but she had picked up a thing or two from fighting the Octarians. As long as she treated it like this, what could go wrong?

With a scowl, she tossed the piece of paper aside and pulled out the second letter. Angrily she ripped it open, pulling the contents out and opening them up.

“Nice job on your first Turf War, kid.” The note said. “Yusei was right about you - you’ve got a lot of potential. I look forward to seeing you on the battlefield.”

Quinn frowned in confusion, before pulling out the note that her mysterious benefactor had left her. Now, the girl was no expert in comparing handwriting, but even to her untrained eyes it was clear that person who had sent this most recent note was the same one that had written the one she had found when she had first woken up. 

Though this note was much, much shorter than the previous one, there were two crucial things about it. The first was that it was signed. The signature wasn’t anything fancy, just a letter L, but it was a clue as to who had helped her. As for the second, well, that was the fact that the note mentioned Yusei by name. That mean that Yusei had to know whoever wrote the note.

Quinn made a note to track Yusei down and ask him about the note. She was going to figure out who her mysterious benefactor was, even if it was the last thing she ever did.


	15. An Unexpected Visit

The next two weeks passed by in a blur. Much to Quinn’s chagrin, however, her injuries from fighting the Octostomp - she had pulled a few muscles - hadn’t healed until two days before the rumble. While she recovered, she had done her best to find out everything she could about Ryker and his gang. What she had found wasn’t pretty.

All of them were level fifty, and had an S rank for the Ranked Battles. Aside from that, each one was an expert with their respective weapon, and they had all inked well over several hundred thousand points of turf. The videos she had found of them online weren’t any better. They were brutal in Turf Wars and Ranked Battles, crushing anyone who opposed them. If all four of them were on a team together, they were almost guaranteed to win. 

Compared to them, Quinn was nothing. She had inked just over one thousand points of turf, had done exactly one Turf War, and didn’t even have a rank yet. As for her level, well, that was laughable. She was level one, the least fresh squid on the block. She had seen Mia the other day. The girl was a proud owner of a roller now, and she was almost level ten. She herself was still at level one. 

But what Quinn was counting on was that she had experience in a battlefield, experience that Ryker’s crew didn’t have. She bet that none of them had been in life or death situations. While her own ink only knocked the Octarians out, she had been splatted a few times on a mission. The Hero Suit allowed for her to respawn three times, but after that she was dead meat, in more ways than one. 

The black inkling sighed and shifted her tentacles to a magenta hue. The match was tomorrow, and she wanted to reacquaint herself with the Splattershot Jr. again before the rumble. Plus, the Kelp Dome was on the rotation today. She’d be able to scout the place out before the fight. 

Great, now she was thinking like a secret agent, too. With a sigh she walked out of her apartment. She had matches to participate in, and they weren’t going to wait for her.

....................................................................................................................

Inkopolis was already bustling with Inklings as she made her way to the huge tower in the center of the city. As she walked, she passed by the House of Hundreds. The day after the Great Zapfish had been stolen, the governing body of the city had implemented policies to try and lessen the impact of the crisis. Turf Wars were only played from nine in the morning until sundown, as to lessen the usage of electricity. Stores similarly were only allowed to be open while the sun was up. An investigation had been launched into the theft, and a huge construction project to harness electricity from lightning storms over the ocean was slowly but steadily coming together. However, the sheer size and scope of the project, as well as the fact that no one knew exactly how to gather electricity from clouds was slowing the project down. Currently it was slated to be finished in six months time. Quinn wasn’t sure if Inkling civilization would survive for six months. She had to get the Zapfish back, and quickly. 

But the Cap’n had told her in no uncertain terms to come back to Octo Valley in two weeks time. That meant that she was forbidden from fighting the Octarians currently. Understandably, she was getting a bit worried - every second she wasted recovering led to another day that an outside settlement could fail. The trains were no longer running, and all communication with the other settlements was gone. Her mother was probably worried sick about her only daughter.

With a sigh she walked into Inkopolis Tower, signing up for the next battle in the Kelp Dome. A quick super jump off the launchpad, and she was on her way.

....................................................................................................................

Quinn had come to two conclusions as she walked home from the battles. The first was that she hated the Kelp Dome. The second was that she was going to be toast. 

Why did she hate the Kelp Dome? Well, there were some parts of the map that were good. She liked the little raised areas that there were, as well as the fact that the spawn point was a bit challenging for the other team to reach. Ryker and Liam would be able to get her no problem, but Zane and Dash would have a little bit more trouble. If need be, should could camp out there. 

But other than that, and a few quick exits she could take to get out of the line of fire, she was toast. The place was too large, and there were a million places where she could get cornered and splatted. Liam would be able to reach almost anywhere on the field with that charger weapon he had; and Ryker’s range was almost as large. Maybe if she had better gear, then she’d be okay, but with just the beginner stuff, she wasn’t going to do well. If she had her Hero Suit and Hero Shot, then she might have a chance. But there was no way she would be able to get to the gear without the Cap’n spotting her. She’d have to make due with the Splattershot Jr.

She groaned and headed towards the bathroom, planning on taking a quick shower. The Kelp Dome was unbearably humid, and she had been sweating buckets by the time she walked out of Inkopolis Tower. The place was miserably hot, and Quinn wasn’t looking forward to returning to the massive greenhouse. 

Just as she was about to rinse off, however, there was a knock on the door. Quinn groaned again, but walked over to the entrance way, opening it up.

“What do you want?” She asked rather brusquely, before blinking a few times as she took in the sight of her unlikely and unexpected visitors. 

Dash was on the other side of the door, along with a boy that Quinn didn’t recognize. He was a medium blue, clothed in a replica of the Armour Jackets she sometimes wore in Octo Valley, and red shoes were on his feet. A gas mask covered his face, though she was surprised to see that his eyes didn’t widen in shock when he saw her natural coloring. This struck Quinn as odd.

It was even odder when he looked over at Dash. 

“You didn’t tell me that you knew the black Inkling.” He said in a neutral tone. Dash shrugged, before looking over at Quinn. 

“Sorry for the unexpected visit, Harley.” He said. Quinn winced slightly at the name. She was going to have to level with the guys eventually about her real name. And, she decided, there was no time like the present. She sighed, before looking at the two boys. 

“Oh don’t worry about it.” Quinn replied before stepping aside. “Come in and sit down, I don’t really have any plans, so you guys aren’t holding me up or anything.”

Dash thanked her, before the two Inklings walked into the spacious living room, taking their shoes off and leaving them at the door. They sat down on one of the couches, while Quinn took the one opposite them. Her black eyes flickered over at the boy with the gas mask. 

“So, who’s your friend?” She asked. 

“The name’s Langston.” He replied. “I take it you’re Harley?”

“Yeah, see about that…” Quinn said with a sigh. “I kind of lied to you and your friends, Dash. My name isn’t Harley, it’s Quinn. I know that not telling the truth’s wrong, I was panicking, and the last thing I wanted was to make it easy for Ryker to track me down. Although I must admit, I don’t know how you managed to find me.”

“Don’t worry about lying.” Dash said dismissively. “I would have done the same thing in your situation. As for finding you, well, I was asking around, and Langston here said he knew where you lived.”

“Considering the fact that I’ve never seen you before in my life, I find that pretty interesting that you knew where I was staying.” Quinn murmured quietly, a threatening undertone to her voice. Langston shrugged.

“I got curious about the rumors I was hearing regarding there being a black Inkling, and I did some digging.” He said defensively, a bit too defensively for Quinn’s liking. He knew more than he was letting on. The girl would have liked to pursue it a bit more, but she let the matter drop for now. 

“So, since that’s out of the way, what brings you here?” She asked. “I doubt Ryker’s given his seal of approval for the visit.” 

 

“Oh what Ryker doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Dash said. “We came here for two reasons, the first of which regards the rumble.”

Quinn laughed, a dark and angry laugh that startled the two boys. Her chuckles, though filled with bitterness rather than mirth, took a few minutes to subside. When Quinn managed to quell her laughter, the smile on her face would have rivaled a shark’s grin, and her pearly white teeth were bared in a deadly snarl. 

“Rumble? Hardly!” She snorted. “That’s not going to be a rumble, Dash, that’s going to be a massacre, and I’m the prime target. There’s no way I’ll win. My level is low, my weapon is subpar, and the less said about my gear the better. I can’t buy anything to compete with you guys, and even if I had the money, who would sell to me? Not even Spyke is that desperate, and he lives out on the street!” 

“Yeah, but if we’re the ones buying it, than the shopkeepers will gladly sell to you.” Langston informed her.

“Besides, it’s not like we’re giving you a choice.” Dashiel added. “We already put in the orders. They’ll be ready in about half an hour.” 

Quinn blinked a few times in confusion, too stunned to react. Langston took her silence as acceptance of the situation and moved on to the second reason for the visit.

“So, I take it you know about the Zapfish crisis?” He asked. Quinn nodded once. Of course she knew, she didn’t live under a rock. 

“See, here’s the thing.” Langston said. “What a lot of people don’t know is that the House of Hundred is working on building a massive power station out in the ocean near Splashtown. It’s going to harness lightning, and use that as electrical power to run the cities and outposts. The House has been asking squids to go out and work on it. Its an invitation only project.” 

“And I take it that since you’re asking me, you’re part of this House of Hundred?” Quinn asked. Langston glanced over at Dash, before deliberately shaking his head. 

“Nah, one of the members asked me to recruit people.” He replied, lying through his teeth. “I figured that you seem to be pretty good at fighting. We don’t know if there are any hostile creatures out there, so some of the better players are forming a pseudo army to act as a defensive force out there.”

“I’ve played exactly fifteen matches, and of those matches, fourteen of them have been today, and thus have not had a chance to air on television or become part of the highlight reels yet.” Quinn pointed out. “Therefore, you are formulating your opinion of my skills as a fighter based on one three minute match, where I was splatted multiple times.”

“Yeah, but your instincts as a rookie were impressive, especially since that was your first match.” The dark blue inkling countered.

“You were pretty good.” Dash added unhelpfully. Quinn sighed.

“Look, I’d love to.” She said carefully. “But honestly, that first win was a fluke. I’d take too many risks to be useful. Trust me when I say that you don’t want me to be on the team.” 

“Ok then…” Langston didn’t sound too happy, but Quinn wasn’t going to just up and leave Inkopolis. With luck, she’d have all of the Zapfish recovered in the next six months, maybe sooner. But still, if they were able to harness electricity from the sky, they would be able to stop being dependent on the Zapfish, and in Quinn’s mind that would be a pretty good thing. 

“Hey, it’s almost six!” Dash said suddenly, drawing her out of her thoughts. “C’mon, we have to get to the shops before they close!” 

Without waiting for an answer he hauled Quinn to her feet and ran out the door, dragging the protesting girl behind him. Langston sighed and shook his head. Dash was too impulsive sometimes. He too rose to his feet, pulling his shoes on and grabbing the pairs that belong to Dash and Quinn. He then walked out of the apartment and shut the door. It wasn’t easy to reach into his pocket with his hands full of shoes, but he managed it. After rummaging around for a moment, he pulled out a key, slid it into the door, and locked it.


	16. Challenge Accepted

As Quinn walked towards the Kelp Dome the night of the rumble, the only thing she could think to do was curse herself for being so stubborn. She didn’t have to accept the challenge, but here she was, about to walk into the killing fields. 

Still, at least she had a fighting chance now, thanks to Dash and Langston. The two boys had ordered a custom set of beginner gear for her, so as to not attract Ryker’s suspicion. Each piece of gear had been granted four ability slots, and were fully charged with beneficial abilities, courtesy of Spyke and the shop owners. Sheldon hadn’t given her a new gun, but had begrudgingly cleaned and done maintenance on her weapon, ink tank, and bombs. Her new cream basics had the standard swim speed up, but also run speed up, bomb sniffer, and ink resistance up. Aside from the quick respawn on her headband, there was also tenacity, quick super jump, and stealth jump Her yellow t-shirt had ninja squid, special saver, ink saver (main) and special charge up.

Having the gear was great, but she couldn’t use it in any official match. Technically the shoes were illegal - ink resistance up and bomb sniffer both had to be main abilities to be allowed in normal play - and if she used them in Turf Wars, she would be disqualified. When Quinn had pointed out the fact that she wouldn’t be playing by the rules, however, Dash had brushed her off.

“The way I see it.” He said. “Ryker isn’t playing by the rules, either. I mean, it is going to be four on one, so you’re already at a disadvantage. Besides, I talked to him about maybe getting you a few pieces of gear to compensate for the fact that you aren’t going to have any teammates, and he said something along the lines of ‘it doesn’t matter what kind of gear she wears, she’s still going down!’ The way I see it, he essentially gave me permission to buy this kind of gear for you. Besides, I talked to Judd, and he said you could use it in a rumble like this, or maybe even a private battle if you talked to the other player beforehand. Even if Ryker doesn’t like what I got you, he’s not going to argue with Judd.” 

That was enough to convince Quinn to use the gear. Now, as she came to a stop inside of the dark Kelp Dome, she was glad she had.   
“Hey, rookie! Up here!” 

Ryker and his gang were in the center of the arena, and from the look on his face, the orange Inkling wasn’t too happy to see her. Quinn groaned and made her way to the center of the greenhouse, walking onto the tall tower. 

“So, you actually showed?” Liam sounded shocked. “Do you have a death wish or something?”

“No, I just figured that Ryker must be obsessed with me.” She replied flippantly. “He can’t seem to get me out of his mind.” 

“You’re going to pay for that.” Ryker vowed, while Dash suppressed a smile. 

“Well, if you’re planning on sitting around here shooting the breeze, I’m leaving.” Quinn retorted with a grin. “I didn’t drag my body out of bed for tea and cookies, you know.”

Ryker turned purple with rage, while his three companions smirked. Dash snickered softly, but a glare from Ryker caused it to die away.

“Keep on running that big mouth of yours.” Ryker warned the girl. “You’re going to regret you ever said that.” 

“Oh really? I don’t think I’m going to.” Quinn said innocently. She knew she was pushing Ryker’s buttons, and she really didn’t care. Perhaps if he was angry, he’d be an easy target. 

“Ryker, I hate to cut this short, but if we don’t start soon, we aren’t going to get a fight.” Zane pointed out, the tactician’s voice snapping his leader out of his rage.

“Yeah, what’re the rules so I can get to work splatting you?” Quinn echoed. Ryker glared at her again, causing Quinn’s smile to grow even wider. She was certainly enjoying herself.

“Anything goes, rookie.” He spat out, anger leeching into the air from his deadly voice. “The four of us are going to try and splat you, you’re going to try and splat us. Each splat is worth ten points. Points are also awarded based on how much turf is covered when we finish. Since there are four of us and only one of you, I’ve graciously decided to allow your score to be multiplied by four at the end of the rumble. The match lasts until seven thirty tomorrow morning. That gives us eight hours to run around here undisturbed, tally the scores, wipe the cameras, and get out of here before the referees come and find the mess we’ve made. The ink should fade by then. Any questions?”

“Nope.” Quinn replied. “See you all later, alligators! Enjoy losing!” 

Before Ryker could snap, she shifted into a squid and jumped over to the spawn point. Ryker growled before turning to look at his team. They were all deadly serious, ready for absolutely anything. The time for fun and games was over. Now, the game turned serious.

“Show her no mercy.” Ryker ordered before he and his team jumped to their own spawn point. 

Quinn got into position, watching as across the map Ryker and his crew shifted to a uniform orange hue. 

“The Rumble starts in three...two...one...go!” Zane hollered. 

Quinn wasted no time. She jumped off the platform, ink already spraying out of her gun.


	17. The Rumble

Quinn hit the ground, throwing out a few splat bombs to cover some turf. She had to get moving, and get moving quickly. If she had any chance of winning, she’d need to focus on covering turf while avoiding being splatted. She inked a few paths, before sailing over a jump and landing in enemy territory. 

A foolish move, as it turned out, because Dash was right there. 

“Sorry.” He said before emptying the contents of his slosher onto the defenseless girl. With a quiet yelp the girl burst apart, her little black ghost flying back to the spawn point. Dash watched her go before pressing himself against the wall. He liked Quinn, but a match was a match. 

Quinn emerged from the black spawn point, shaking her head a few times to clear it. She had been foolish, and another ten points had been added to Ryker’s team. Cautiously the girl swam off of the platform, taking a moment to cover the raised area only she had access to. So far so good, no one had made it over to her spawn point again. 

Taking a deep breath, she was about to head away from where she was splatted when it occurred to her that no one was going to expect her to do the exact same thing as before. She took another deep breath to calm her rattled nerves, before tossing a bomb out. She then dove into the black ink and swam with all her might towards the opposite direction. 

As she approached the ramp, she came to a stop and peaked over the edge. Sure enough, Dash was still down there. The boy was pressed up against the wall right below her, eyes facing forward. He was expecting her to do the same exact thing all over again.

Quinn would have laughed out loud, but her discipline was too strong for that. She settled for a smirk, before pulling out a splat bomb. At this point she was a pro at arming them, and soon the bomb was primed for exploding. Quinn smiled, before lowering it down so that it was almost to the ground. The next part would be tricky.

Deliberately she let out a loud burp, causing Dash to jump and raise his slosher. Quinn dropped the bomb, the soft click unnoticed by the startled Inkling.

“Excuse me.” She said with a shark like grin as Dash glared at her. The boy raised his weapon, but Quinn pushed it down.

“Aw, did I scare you?” The black inkling asked incredulously. “Geez, I’m really sorry for scaring you twice.” 

“Twice?” Dash sounded confused. “What do you mean twi-”

He was cut off as the splat bomb blew up, splatting him. Quinn laughed delightedly as the little orange ghost zipped away. She’d pay for that later, but for now it was worth the look on Dash’s face. 

“Nice shot, rookie.” Quinn paled before rolling off of the platform as Ryker let loose with the Hydra Splatling. A few of the ink bullets nicked her, and the girl flattened herself against the wall. Unfortunately, Liam was waiting for her, and she dodged a shot from his Luna Blaster Neo. Ryker jumped down in front of her, his splatling already charged up. 

With a vicious smirk he fired, the ink slamming into Quinn and splatting her almost instantly. Due to the close range, it hurt a lot more than normal, and as she respawned, she was appalled to see that some bruises were already forming. 

Quinn snarled and ran back into the battlefield. They were going to regret making her mad.

....................................................................................................................

Three hours later, Quinn had yet to make Ryker’s gang regret making her angry. She had lost count of the times she had been splatted, and almost all of her turf was covered up. Ryker and Liam both had their weapons trained on the girl, ready to splat her the minute she stepped off of the spawn point. Dash and Zane were off in other places, no doubt eliminating more of her turf. It was a stalemate. Someone had to move first. The question was whether or not Quinn would break first. 

Quinn, however, was very patient. She was prepared to camp out all night, if necessary. 

Finally, an hour and a half into her vigil, Ryker stormed off, obviously disgusted with her. Quinn grinned, before activating her bubbler. Diving off the platform, she splatted Liam before he could react. Quinn stealthily swam after Ryker, popping up just behind the teen. He turned around too late, but at that point Quinn had already splatted him. 

The girl grinned a shark like grin, before dashing off. She had a chance to turn the tide of the rumble. She was suddenly in a better mood than she had been for the past hour and a half.

As she began to run up the ramp, however, a shadow passed over the field. Quinn came to a screeching halt. Zane snuck up behind her and splatted her. Quinn reappeared by the spawn point, only to pale as she realized that the shadows had been Octarian UFOs. Quinn grew even paler, if that was possible, and ran off of the spawn point. She had to get out of there and get to Octo Valley, now. 

“Hey, where’re you going, rookie?” Ryker demanded as he dropped down in front of the girl, Liam and Dash right behind her. “We aren’t done.” 

“Look, I don’t have time to explain!” Quinn replied in a panic. “I’ve got to go, now!” 

“We aren’t done!” Ryker yelled, red in the face as he advanced threateningly towards the girl. Quinn growled softly, a feral look in her eyes that scared the orange Inkling.

“I don’t have time for this.” She hissed before raising her gun. She activated the bubbler and splatted Ryker, Liam, and Dash before any of them could react. Quinn hated to run off - technically she was forfeiting, and the girl didn’t like to lose - but stopping the Octolings was her number one priority. 

“I can’t believe she gave up!” Ryker snapped as he respawned, along with the others. “She’s got a lot of…”

He trailed off as he realized that Zane was knocked out and tied up. Dash glanced behind him and paled. 

“Hey Ryker.” He said. “You might want to drop your gun.” 

“What for?” The orange inkling asked as Liam toppled over. As it turned out, Ryker never would get an answer. Something slammed into the side of his head, and then everything went black.

Dash watched as two of the Octolings tied Ryker up, while a third collected their weapons. Ryker was tossed next to Liam and Zane, before someone roughly grabbed Dash’s hands and began to tie them behind his back.

“Looks like you’ve got a bit more sense than your friends.” The female Octoling said as she finished restraining him. “So, are there any other of you Inklings around here, or is it just you?”

“There was someone else.” Dash said carefully. “They ran off, though. That dirty coward just wasted our entire evening. He was talking a big game, bragging how they could take all four of us on with no help and still win. His bark’s a lot worse than his bite.”

It was a total lie, but Dash could get away with it. The Octoling studied him for a moment, before sighing and shoving him down to the ground next to his teammates. 

“Hey Odette!” She called. “What do I do with this one?” 

“Drug him.” Came the reply. Dash’s eyes widened in panic, and he shook his head. He hated needles, and the last thing he wanted was for some random Octoling to go stabbing him with one. The soldier shrugged, but retrieved a syringe from one of the crates the others were setting up. A red liquid was inside it, and though Dash didn’t know exactly what it was, he knew that he didn’t want that thing to be anywhere near him. 

“Sorry about this.” The Octoling said before jamming it into his shoulder.


	18. A New Mission

Quinn sprinted through the sewers, running faster than she had ever run in her life. She had to get to the Captain as fast as possible. By this time, the Octolings would have set up a base of operation, Ryker and his friends were either dead or captured, and pretty soon there would be an attack on Inkopolis. She had to stop it, no matter what. 

“Man, I really need to hook up some sort of transportation system to cut the journey down.” Agent 3 gasped out as she came to a stop below the grate. With a mighty super jump she burst through the grate, landing inside of Octo Valley. 

“What’re you doing here, bucko?” Cap’n Cuttlefish asked. “You aren’t supposed to be placed on active duty for another day...Quinn? What’s wrong?”

“No time to explain.” The girl said in a panic as she brushed by her leader. There were three cloaked figures next to the shed, their faces and identities masked by the hoods on their heads. They did not speak, but Quinn knew that they were watching her.

She put them out of her mind, however, and ducked behind the partition, changing into her Hero Suit as fast as she could. She didn’t even bother to take the time to put her stuff on the shelves, leaving the gear and her weapons on the floor. As she ran out the door she snagged her Hero Shot and the special splat bombs. Hooking her weapon to her ink tank, she charged out of the shack and into Octo Valley, ignoring the Cap’n’s cry to come back. 

.........................................................................................................

Quinn growled in frustration as she ran through the first area of Octo Valley. There was nothing here, no new kettles, no launchpads, nothing to clue her as to where the Octolings had gotten into the Kelp Dome. She had reached the end of the area, coming to a screeching halt above the cloudy cliffs. Cap’n Cuttlefish had said that Octo Valley was located high above a crevice. Supposedly the land was solid once, but the Inklings had blown a hole in the land while trying to eradicate the Octarians. Apparently the crown prince of the Octarians had led his people into the gorge below; and though the Inklings wanted to ensure that the Octarians would never threaten them again, they were hesitant to chase after them. 

Agent 3 sighed and glanced down at the watch on her wrist. It had been three hours since she had fled the Kelp Dome. Soon it would be daylight, and if she didn’t get the Octarians out of the Kelp Dome, she was going to have bigger problems on her hands than simply freeing Ryker and his crew. 

As she began another sweep of the area, however, she discovered an unactivated ink rail. Quinn blinked a few times in confusion, before shooting it. A trail of sticky black ink shot out, bending and twisting until it reached one of the floating islands nearby. The secret agent shrugged, before shifting into a squid and swimming into the device. 

“This’ll be easy.” Quinn murmured as she zipped along. “All I need to do is not look down, and everything will be fine.” 

Still, those words could not completely reassure her, and she was happy when her feet touched dry land again. The girl turned back into a kid, before surveying this new area.

It reminded her of Blackbelly Skatepark - indeed, it probably used to be a place for teenagers to come and show off their flashy moves. There was a tall tower in the center, on top of which rested another boss kettle. Quinn groaned, hoping that there weren’t more weapons like the Octostomp, but she pushed those thoughts out of her mind. Inking a path up the tower, she clambered onto the rusted device, surveying the area. Nothing but rotting ruins as far as the eyes could see. 

Just as she was about to cut her losses and get to the Kelp Dome through Inkopolis, a glint of light caught her eyes. Craning her neck and shielding her eyes from the intense moonlight, she saw the dim outline of a kettle on a nearby tower. 

“That has to be it.” She said to herself as she took in the sight. Her eyes began scanning the area, looking for a place high enough to reach the transportation device. There, to the right of it, she could see a tower that was a bit shorter than her target. As long as there was a place for her ink to adhere, she could make that jump easily. 

With a grin on her face, she jumped off the tower, inking trails to swim up the wall. Soon she was just below the kettle, and true to her guess there was a crumbled piece of metal siding that would do the job nicely. A fresh coat of black ink was painted onto the ancient structure, and with a running leap she was swimming up the side. Moments later she was at the top, standing over the kettle.

“Man, they must really want me to come and show them a thing or two.” Quinn murmured. “They didn’t even bother to conceal the kettle. Oh well, the quicker I get in and out, the better.” 

And with that parting though, Quinn slipped through the grates and was on her way. 

.........................................................................................................

The drugs caused paralysis. Dash knew that because he couldn’t move anything. He hadn’t stopped breathing, thankfully, but he was frozen in place. His eyelids drooped to the point of them almost being shut, and he had lost all sensation in his limbs. The most he could do was sit there mutely and watch as the Octolings patrolled the Kelp Dome. 

“Yes sir, we have established a perimeter.” Odette said into the communication, no doubt informing her leader of their accomplishment. “It was no trouble, a few Inklings were running around, but we’ve got them all taken care of. Perhaps a few prisoners will convince Agent 3 to return our Zapfish.”

That alone caused Dash to mentally groan. The Octarians had been the ones to take the Zapfish? That was impossible, the Octarians had died out ages ago...right? But the proof was right in front of him that his previous assumption was incorrect. 

Either way, there was nothing he could do about it now. He was caught like a rat in a trap; and chances were he was going to end up dead.


	19. Showdown at the Kelp Dome (part 1)

In an ironic twist of fate, Quinn emerged from the kettle at the spawn point she had been assigned for the rumble. It was still a dark black, and as Quinn stood atop it, she surveyed the massive greenhouse.

In the short three hours she’d been away, the Octolings had dragged in crates and set them up. The change in landscape made the dark battlefield gloomy and oppressive. Quinn knew that at any moment, she could be jumped. On the opposite spawn point, she could see the Zapfish, a few dark masses nearby. They seemed to be attaching things to the cage, because in a few moments the warehouse was brightly lit, revealing a few trails of power eggs on the floor. 

“Not so bright, dummy!” A voice snapped. “The Inklings will grow suspicious if they notice that the lights are on full blast!”

“Sorry!” A quieter response echoed in the air, and moments later the lights were dimmed, leaving just enough radiance to see. Quinn groaned, before paling as an Octoling walked by underneath her. The girl looked up, and for a moment there was nothing but silence as the two stared at each other. 

“Help! Agent 3 is here!” The Octoling yelped. “Intruder alert! Intruder a-” 

Quinn cut the girl off by splatting her, but at this point they knew she was here. She had to move, fast. 

Her heart was pounding, her blood - did Inklings even have blood? - was rushing through her arteries, carrying adrenaline to every hormone receptor in her body. Her senses suddenly seemed sharper, she could see clearly despite the murky darkness, and her ears picked up on even the faintest footsteps. The Hero Shot, which before had seemed like just another weapon - granted, a powerful weapon - now felt alive in her hands, ready to paint a deadly masterpiece. 

She wasn’t just a scared little girl anymore. Oh no, she was a warrior, and she was going to do what she did best: fight.

To be honest, Quinn was a bit terrified. She had no idea what had come over her, but it was almost like she was there, but not there. It was hard to describe, but to the girl it kind of seemed like she was viewing the events from a distance. She was a part of it, but at the same time she had nothing to contribute. 

Agent 3 pushed those thoughts out of her head, however. She could not afford to be scared right now, not when the Octolings had taken prisoners.

“I’m giving all of you one chance!” She yelled, her voice echoing in the silent air. “Release your prisoners, and the Zapfish! In exchange, I shall let you collect your wounded and leave here with no further harm.”

Silence ruled for a brief moment. Then from the depths of the greenhouse rose a defiant war cry. Quinn sighed. To tell the truth, she had been expecting them to brush her offer aside. 

“Agent 3!” A tall Octoling with a crown of kelp woven into her black tentacles walked next to the Zapfish’s cage, her form illuminated by the radiance emanating from the creature. Although the strange goggles that all Octolings wore covered her eyes, Quinn knew that she was staring right at her. 

“I am Odette!” The Octoling yelled across the arena. “Leader of all espionage units and recently made commander of all invasions, handpicked by our esteemed king himself!”

“If you’re the head honcho around here, I don’t think I have anything to worry about!” Quinn retorted. Sadly, Odette didn’t rise to the bait.

“We have you outnumbered and outgunned.” Odette informed her. “Return the three Zapfish you have stolen from us, and not only will we release our prisoners, we shall also let you leave here with your life.” 

“Sorry kid.” Quinn said, grinning when Odette flushed a deep red. That remark had touched a nerve. “Ryker may be loved by a lot of Inklings, but I’m no fan of him. Besides, I’m not going to be dumb enough to trade three Zapfish for four Inklings. Only a fool would do that. And as for you outnumbering me and outgunning me, I’m not worried about that. Unless you’re willing to take me on one on one, you’re always going to outnumber and outgun me. Besides, I took out the Great Octostomp with my own two hands, by myself, with barely a scratch! Why should I fear the likes of you?”

“I saw your fight with the Octostomp.” Odette answered, contempt in her voice. “You won because Xana was a fool, not by any special accomplishment on your part. I take it you are refusing my generous offer?” 

“I am.” Quinn said confidently. “Just as I assume that you are refusing mine?”

“You are correct.” Odette replied in a deadly voice. “Agent 3, prepare to die.” 

“Not on my watch, kid!” Agent 3 replied before springing down to a raised platform. She shot out some black ink, covering a good area. Her exceptional hearing could detect Odette giving the orders for her troops to move out. 

With an almost feral war cry an Octoling superjumped to its fallen comrade’s location. Quinn had just been about to transfer down to the main level, when an idea struck her. She swam towards the ramp, peaking down over the sides. The Octoling was lying in wait, ready to splat Quinn the moment she turned the corner. 

Agent 3 almost snickered. This was going to be too easy.

Quietly she slowly lowered herself until she was hanging from the ramp, head towards the floor. The blood started rushing towards her brain, and Quinn knew she didn’t have a lot of time. Carefully she took aim, a grin on her face, before pressing down on the trigger.

Black ink flew out and struck the soldier squarely in the back. With a startled screech the Octoling burst apart, black ink flying everywhere. Moments later the surface of the newly formed puddle began to boil, and the unconscious Octoling rose to the surface. 

Quinn smirked before flipping off of the ramp to the lower level. She landed gracefully on her feet, taking a moment to collect the power eggs lying around and step on the checkpoint. It rippled purple for a second before gradually fading to black. 

Tossing out a few splat bombs, Quinn advanced around one of the shear walls leading to the catwalk...only to jump back a good meter as another Octoling sprang out at her. 

“You’re going to die!” She yelled before charging towards the startled Inkling. Quinn easily sidestepped the attack, before diving back into her own ink and swimming back towards the checkpoint. Just past the narrow path she paused, arming a splat bomb and dropping it on the ground. 

The rabid Octoling - Agent 3 was almost certain that even Octolings didn’t act this feral - came charging through the corridor, diving on top of Quinn. It struck the girl just how eerily similar it was to her encounter with the unknown Octoling on her way to Inkopolis...come to think of it, it was too similar for it to be a coincidence.

“That’s right, you monster!” The soldier snarled, guessing what Quinn had figured out. “I’m the Octoling you splatted four weeks ago! You humiliated me, stole my gun, and caused me to get yelled at! I’ve been waiting for a chance to get back at you ever since.”

“Oh really?” Quinn said nonchalantly, or as nonchalantly as she could manage with the Octoling’s hand around her throat. 

“How can you be so calm?” Her assailant demanded. “You’re about to die!” 

“Octavia, have you gone mad?” Two more Octolings ran over and pulled Octavia off of Quinn. “Our orders were to capture Agent 3 and wait for Odette to arrive before executing the intruder.”

“Yeah, um about that execution…” Quinn said as she sat up, wheezing slightly. Her hands were behind her, reaching for the splat bomb that she had dropped earlier. Normally it would have exploded by now, but Agent 3 had realized that she had forgotten to pull the pin, so to speak. “I really hate to break it to you guys, but it’s not going to happen.” 

“Why not?” One of the unknown soldiers asked. Quinn smirked in response and held up the splat bomb, now properly armed. 

There was just enough time for the Octolling’s jaws to drop open and their eyes to widen before the explosive blew up. Black ink sprayed everywhere, and three more unconscious bodies joined the others on the floor. 

Quinn shook her head to clear it, adrenaline coursing through her like a flood. Despite the fact that she had nearly been killed, she had never felt more alive while doing it. She certainly hoped that this little experience wasn’t going to turn her into one of those adrenaline junkies.


	20. Showdown at the Kelp Dome (part 2)

Footsteps rang out in the silent greenhouse as Quinn sprinted to the center of the battlefield. Halfway to the Zapfish in less than twenty minutes. Agent 3 was making good time.

Sadly, time was not something that Quinn had a lot of. It was quarter to seven. She had exactly forty-five minutes to finish taking out the Octolings, snag the Zapfish, remove the crates, free Ryker and his crew, and get out and return to Octo Valley undetected. It wasn’t going to be easy, but Quinn wasn’t one to back down from a challenge.

Yet another Octoling rose up from the sea of purple ink, jumping down in front of her. Without batting an eye Quinn dodged the ink bullets and responded in kind with some of her own. They found their mark, and the soldier was quickly knocked unconscious. 

Agent 3 ignored the Octoing for the time being, instead inking a path up the side of the tower and taking a moment to break the red crate open. Some armour fell out, and as she drew near it latched onto her Hero Suit. It always felt a bit weird when the helmet clamped down on her head, almost as if something was trying to suck her brains right out of her head; but the sensation quickly vanished. Her headphones faltered a bit as the device automatically latched onto the helmet, but they quickly recovered and resumed blaring music. She had gone with some instrumental techno today. Not that she didn’t like the Squid Sisters, it just got boring to listen to the same thing over and over and over again.

With a sigh she was about to transfer down to the lower level, when one of the mesh walkways caught her eye. For a moment the girl was torn - there was a trail of power eggs down below, and the more of them she collected, the more she could power up her weapons. But time was of the essence, and so far the path marked so carefully by those orange orbs was long and meandering. She had to get to the prisoners and the Zapfish as quickly as possible. 

Making her mind up, she ran along the catwalk, gun at the ready. It was well that she had done so, for as she darted towards the ramp an Octoling super jumped a short distance away. It had been lying in wait, though it had not appeared to expect Quinn to sneak up behind her. 

The soldier began firing the moment she landed, but Quinn had already turned into a squid and fell through the grate. The black tentacled Inkling landed on another red crate, tucked out of sight behind the ramp. She smashed it, hoping for a special. Instead, however, she found another tattered scroll. 

Quinn almost sighed in exasperation before she remembered where she was. Choosing to complain later, she shoved it the ancient paper into one of the many pockets in the armour jacket and crept around the corner, splatting the lone Octoling as she recklessly charged towards the newest agent of the Squidbeak Splatoon. It managed to land several blows before succumbing to unconsciousness, however, and the armour protecting her broke open. The girl groaned, but abandoned the shattered pieces of metal and cloth as she walked towards the ledge where the opponent’s spawn point rested.

“How am I going to get up there?” Quinn murmured as she shaded her eyes and looked up at the brightly glowing Zapfish cage. She had just enough time to try and spot the prisoners when another Octoling jumped down, slipping on her own ink. Agent 3 facepalmed as her idiotic assailant sailed through the air and crashed into a large wall of crates. Quinn didn’t waste the opportunity and quickly splatted her. 

There was an inkrail hiding behind the shattered crates, and she wasted no time in activating it. A trail of black ink, suspended above the area soon provided a way for her to access the upper areas, Slipping into her squid form, Agent 3 effortlessly swam through the air, landing on the ledge above. 

As she surveyed the new area, a group of five figures, one with their back to her, caught her attention. Frowning, she scaled one of the nearby tanks - what was stored in them was beyond her - hoping for a better view.

In the dim lighting she could see Odette surveying the four prisoners. None of them were moving, though in this dim light even Quinn’s excellent eyesight was unable to make out smaller motions. Chances were that Ryker, Liam, Zane, and Dash were still alive. At least, she hoped that they were…

She pushed those unpleasant thoughts out of her head, however, and instead pulled out a splat bomb. The girl had an idea in mind. It was risky, but she was pretty sure it was going to pay off…

.........................................................................................................

Dash would have groaned, had he been physically capable of it. The paralytic venom was still inside his bloodstream, rendering him completely immobile. He couldn’t even move his eyes enough to glare at Odette. The Octarian commander was surveying him and his friends, no doubt contemplating what she was going to do with them after she finished whatever she hoped to accomplish in the Kelp Dome. The smug smirk on her face was almost too much to bare.

A hail of splat bombs - more than Dash had ever seen before - suddenly began to hit the ground around them, splattering black ink everywhere. As Odette threw her hands up to shield herself, someone dropped lightly to the ground and pulled the ink tank off her back, smashing it on the ground. It broke apart - though Dash’s trained eyes easily saw that it was a quick fix at best.

As the ink cleared, he was aware that a newcomer had joined the party, an odd looking gun similar to a Splattershot pressed up against the Octoling’s head. 

This newcomer was tall and thin, her skin a nice light bronze. A strange neon yellow jacket covered her torso, paired with odd looking boots and the black shorts that all Inklings wore. A set of super fresh headphones were nestled over her ears, glowing a brilliant neon blue. Her mouth was set in a grim smile, and her charcoal gray eyes were deadly serious. Black tentacles flowed to almost her waist, and this more than anything else was what made Dash realize he knew his rescuer.

“I do believe this is called checkmate.” Quinn whispered softly. “Game over Odette. I’ve won.”


	21. End of a Crisis

Odette looked very frustrated. Quinn had yet to disarm her, but Dash knew the reason why. Sure, the Octoling still had her bombs and her Octoshot, but without the shattered ink tank, it was worthless. She could not fire anything, and even as a projectile weapon both the bombs and the gun would be worthless. Quinn would easily be able to splat the soldier before she could get away.

“Go ahead and do it, you killer.” Odette hissed. “Kill me, just like you did to the rest of my squadron, Agent 3..” 

“I’m many things.” Agent 3 replied. “I’m an outcast, I’m one of the least fresh squids in Inkopolis, and I’m one of the agents that are taking back the Zapfish that you stole from us. However, I am not a killer.” 

“Why?” Odette whispered, dropping her gun and bombs as a sign of her surrender. “Why do you not kill us? This is the fifth time you’ve been able to stop us, and yet you don’t kill any of our troops. Why?”

Agent 3 looked away, an indecipherable look in her eyes. She sighed, but even in her apparent misery she did not slip up and make an amature mistake.

“Someone murdered someone close to me right in front of my eyes a long time ago.” The girl muttered under her breath. “I swore to myself that the only person I would ever kill would be that man. I was young and foolish.” She sighed. 

“It doesn’t matter right now.” Agent 3 said abruptly. “He vanished a long time ago. But I do digress, and it is getting quite late. I’m still willing to make a deal with you, Odette. I’m confiscating your gun and splat bombs. I also want you to call in an unarmed retrieval team to get all of your troops out of here.”

“And what makes you think I will do that willingly?” Odette demanded. Quinn grinned.

“If you don’t, I’m going to knock you out, tie you and your troops up, and let security find you in the morning.” She replied. “Trust me when I say that my option is the better of the two.”

Odette thought about it for a moment, before sighing.

“Why wouldn’t you want me to be in jail, or studied as a lab rat?” She asked, stalling for time. “Wouldn’t you want some help? Or do you have a desire to be a hero?”

“I’m not answering that.” Agent 3 retorted as she picked up the fallen splat bombs and Octoshot. “I’m giving you one last chance. Call now, or I’m going to splat you.”

Odette sighed, but at this point she was out of options. With a defeated look on her face she set about contacting the retrieval squad, relaying the Inkling’s demands to them. 

.........................................................................................................

Quinn watched as the last of the Octarian UFOs flew out of sight. The Octarians hadn’t tried anything funny,not with Odette as her prisoner. Despite the plethora of weapons and ink tanks available, no one dared to attack her now. When they had first landed, one of the Octarian ground troops had charged at the Inkling, ready to splat his enemy. Quinn had taken it out without batting an eye, before pressing the gun execution style against Odette’s temple, the Octoling’s body now a shield between the troops and the two sides.

No one had dared to try anything after that. 

They had loaded up all the crates, broken and unbroken, cleaning the entire area until it was spotless. Any traces of the fight were lost as spawn points were removed, shattered armour and weapons were cleaned up, and unconscious Octolings were carried into the waiting ufos. The inkrails were ripped out, ink was removed from the floor, and the checkpoints were uninstalled. All this was accomplished as Quinn supervised the proceedings, occasionally glancing over at Ryker and his crew to make sure that they weren’t awake yet. 

Now the Octolings were gone, in a full on retreat. Streaks of light began to creep into the building, the golden rays finding paths in through the skylights high above.Quinn sighed before shifting her tentacles to a nice teal shade. The inkrails leading to the Zapfish were gone, but she had two hands and two feet. The tower that the spawn point rested on had several handholds for her to grip, and soon she had scaled the tower.

Pulling out her Hero Shot, she swiftly broke the cage and removed the now docile Zapfish from its cage. 

“You’ll be back in Splat Central soon, buddy.” She said as the little fish playfully growled at the kelp growing nearby. She would have left right then and there, but an outraged cry from behind her drew her attention.

“What’re you doing with that Zapfish?” Ryker demanded. Quinn shrugged, before smirking at him.

“What were you doing running around in the Kelp Dome in the middle of the night, little boy?” She asked sweetly. “If I remember correctly, civilian, sneaking into stadiums in the middle of the night is against the law.” 

That struck a nerve. Ryker turned purple again, while Liam desperately tried to calm him down. Zane had managed to free himself of the ropes that formerly bound him, and was studying Dash in concern.

“Excuse me.” He called up, ignoring the two Inklings next to him for the moment. “But you wouldn’t happen to know what happened to our friend here, would you?”

“No.” Quinn replied. “I assume he was knocked out like the rest of you. If not, I’d assume it is some sort of paralytic drug. It should wear off soon.” 

“Who are you anyway?” Liam wondered. He and Ryker had finally figured out that they could get out of the ropes by turning into squids, though their egos seemed to have taken a slight beating in the process.

“The name’s 3, Agent 3, to you.” Quinn informed them, a confident grin on her face. “The Splatoon got called up to take care of the Zapfish crisis. The others should be returning from their own missions any moment now.”

“You give that Zapfish to us, right now!” Ryker bellowed. Agent 3 laughed. 

“Sorry, kid, but I can’t do that.” She said. “I’d suggest being a bit more careful, if I were you. You never know when the Octarians are going to strike next…”

The girl trailed off as she glanced at something on her wrist. 

“Ah, but I do believe I’ve spoken for too long.” Agent 3 announced, mostly to herself. “I have a Zapfish to return, and I don’t want security to catch me. I’d recommend getting out of here - they’ll be arriving in about ten minutes. Ciao.” 

Before any of the three guys could react, the special agent shifted into a squid and superjumped out of the Kelp Dome, her teal form sailing away until it was lost from view. 

“Ryker, I know you’re mad, but we don’t have a way of following her right now.” Liam said as Ryker furiously swore under his breath. “We need to get out of here, now. Not even the security guards know that we’re part of that one group, and we can’t let them find out.” 

“Fine.” Ryker spit the words out. “Grab Dash. Zane, we’re leaving.”

“You two go on ahead.” The yellow Inkling replied as he picked up his Luna Blaster Neo from the ground. “There’s something I’ve got to do first.”

Without waiting for an answer, he jumped down to the lower level and ran into the Kelp Dome, ducking out of sight. There was something he wanted to see.


	22. Who is Agent 3?

Ryker paced up and down the living room in his penthouse suite, ignoring Liam’s mindless chatter. His thoughts were focused on what had happened in the Kelp Dome, swirling together in a massive, incoherent twister..

Octarians, alive and well after all these years. The Zapfish were being retrieved by other Inklings. Thieves who were thought to have been dead for over a century. The Great Turf War, was it going to happen again? Was it already happening again? What was going on in Inkopolis? 

An image of a girl flashed through his mind, and his eyes narrowed in concentration. She called herself Agent 3, a teal inkling with gray eyes and lightly tanned flesh. That girl had apparently single-handedly stopped an Octarian invasion, freed the Zapfish, and managed to do it in such a way as to make it seem like child’s play. She was cocky and arrogant, though that could have been an act. Her gear, though perhaps fresher than anything Ryker had ever seen offered in the shops, was unfamiliar to him, and that archaic weapon she held bore a striking resemblance to a Splattershot. 

Agent 3 was intriguing, to say the least. Equally intriguing was that splatoon she had mentioned. Ryker knew of one splatoon and one splatoon only: the legendary Squidbeak Splatoon, heros of the Great Turf War. Did this mysterious Agent 3 revive the group? And if so, who were the others that she mentioned.

“I’m back.” Zane announced as he walked in through the door, a cd held in his hands. “I got the footage from last night, and then wiped the security system and replaced it with footage from a few weeks ago. No one’s going to be able to tell that the Octarians invaded last night.”

“Good thinking.” Ryker said as he stopped his pacing. “Let’s see what we can find out about Agent 3”

Zane nodded as he went to slot the disk into the cd player. Or at least, that was what he was planning on doing. A hail of teal ink cut him off, the yellow tentacled boy stopping dead in his tracks.

“Sorry, kid.” Another teal inkling girl said from her perch on the windowsill, her roller primed to deliver another attack. “But I can’t allow you to view that footage.”

Ryker stormed towards her, ready to disarm her, when a ray of teal light appeared on his chest.

“Make one more move, and I’ll splat you.” Another teal Inkling, this one a boy, said, an unfamiliar charger held in his hands. A second teal inkling boy was behind him, holding a gun identical to the one that Agent 3 used. All three of the Inklings wore gear identical to Agent 3’s, as well. 

“Who are you?” Zane asked calmly, shooting a glare at Liam, who was sneaking up on the gun-wielding boy. Without batting an eye Liam’s target sent an ink bullet whizzing over the purple Inkling’s head. 

“The next one goes between your eyes.” He warned.

“Now, to business.” The teen with the charger said. “I’m Agent 4, the teen next to me is Agent 5, and the girl on the windowsill is Agent 6.”

“You’re working with Agent 3, aren’t you?” Liam said carefully. Agent 6 grinned.

“You’re smarter than I thought.” She replied brightly, absently twirling her roller around. “Agent 3 is our newest recruit. We needed someone to replace her predecessors.” 

“Yeah, it was such a pity that Agents 1 and 2 had to quit.” Agent 5 muttered under his breath.

“5, 6, we didn’t come here to talk.” Agent 4 snapped. “Here’s how things are going to work, kids. You’re going to hand over that cd in your hands. In exchange, we’ll give you the antidote to the venom that is currently inside of your light blue friend over there. He’s looking rather pale, I’d assume his heart is starting to give out.”

Zane glanced over at Dash, concerned. He did seem to be getting rather pale, but at the same time that could only be because Agent 4 had said he was growing whiter by the moment. He was expecting to see it, so he saw it.

“Yeah, the last time someone died from that...oh, it wasn’t pretty.” Agent 5 said with a wince as 6 started to cry. “It was awful, ink spurting out of his eyes and everything. 6’s aunt never forgave her for not saving her son.” 

For Ryker, that was what did it in for him. As much as he wanted to find out who Agent 3 was, he wasn’t going to risk Dash’s life for it. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure if these Agents were telling the truth or not about Dash’s condition, but if he gambled and lost, he would never forgive himself.

“Deal.” He said, gesturing for Zane to hand over the cd. Agent 4 took it out of his hands, before handing them a box. 

“Keep your noses out of any business concerning the Octarians.” Agent 4 warned as he backed towards the window, Agents 5 and 6 having already made their escape. “Otherwise we'll be back. And next time we won’t be so lenient.” 

With those parting remarks he jumped out of the window, falling towards the ground. Liam ran over to the window, just in time to see the trio super jump away. 

Zane frowned as he studied the contents of the box: one hypodermic needle. 

“It’s empty.” He announced. Liam paled, while Ryker growled angrily. They were, however, cut off unexpectedly as Dash groaned and blearily blinked his eyes.

“What happened?” He managed to ask, his voice slurred slightly. 

“You’re not dead.” Liam said, surprised. Dash groaned again and closed his eyes.

 

“I feel like it.” He muttered, slowly regaining control of his muscles. “Whatever they drugged me with must be wearing off.” He sighed. “So I take it Quinn saved us?”

“That coward ran off, remember?” Ryker snarled, his temper flaring as he recalled how Quinn had cowardly fled the Kelp Dome. Dash glared at him.

“You really believe that?” He asked coldly. “Wake up, Ryker. Quinn’s not like that. If she was a coward, she wouldn’t have even showed up. She sat on that spawn point for three hours, Ryker. Three hours. If she wanted to run off, she would have done it then, when by all accounts it appeared that she would never get a chance to make a comeback. I know you’re putting a lot of pressure on her, to see if she can handle being one of the hundred Inklings responsible for all major decisions in Inkopolis, but acting like this is ridiculous. This is a new low, even for you.”

Dead silence filled the air for a few moments. Liam and Zane’s mouths had dropped open in surprise, shocked that the normally easy-going Inkling had dared to speak that harshly to Ryker. Ryker, for his part, stood there mutely, stunned into silence. Dashiel stubbornly climbed to his feet, ignoring the wave of dizziness that descended onto him, and walked towards the door. 

“I don’t care what you chose to believe.” He said softly. “But I was awake, and you weren’t. And I’d have to be blind to not recognize the only black tentacled Inkling in existence.” 

With that parting statement, he walked out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.


	23. Arguments

Quinn sighed as she lay on her bed, happy to be off her feet. The girl had returned the Zapfish to the Cap’n, before retiring to her apartment for a hard-earned rest. However, try as she might, her mind refused to stop running a million miles a minute; consumed with analyzing the events of the last day. 

The rumble had been perhaps one of the most challenging things that had ever happened to her in her entire life. Her new gear had served her well,especially the shoes. There had been several times that she would have gotten splatted by bombs if it hadn’t been for the bomb sniffer. The ink resistance up was a nice ability too, especially after her long vigil at the spawn point. But even then, Quinn knew that there was never a chance of her winning. Ryker’s crew was simply too experienced, and the fighting skills she had learned in Octo Valley could only take her so far. At the end of the day, she was outnumbered, outgunned, and unlike in Octo Valley, she couldn’t knock her opponents out.

And then the Octarians had come. Quinn had known that they were the ones to steal the Zapfish, but never had she dreamed that they would be so bold as to try and take over one of the arenas for Turf Wars. Odette had been overconfident, and that was what had allowed Quinn to win, this time. Odette wouldn’t let her anger get the better of her when the next invasion happened.

But perhaps the one thing that had bugged Quinn the most was how she had let slip her largest secret - she could not kill anyone. For a secret agent, it made her seem weak, but Quinn had vowed long ago that the only Inkling to die at her hands would be the man known simply as the Seaside Killer.

He had wormed his way into her life, befriending her family, winning over her parents with sweet little gifts - exotic delicacies from the southernmost Inkling settlement for her mother, fine wines for her father, and candy and toys for herself. It had worked. She had trusted him. They all had. Then it happened.

Aunt Maria had taken her mother into Inkopolis for surgery, though Quinn couldn’t recall what it was for. She had been sick, and was supposed to be in bed. Mark - that was what he had called himself, though Quinn doubted that it was his real name - had shown up at the door in a panic, saying that his boat had gotten stuck and he needed help removing it from the sandbar. Her father, not suspecting anything was wrong, agreed to go help. What neither of them knew was that Quinn had overheard their conversation.

The black tentacled Inkling could recall that she had been so excited when Mark showed up, figuring that he would have a toy or a piece of candy for her. So the girl snuck out of the house after them, the six year old squid stealthily swimming after the pair. She had come to a stop behind some rocks, her pitch black body blending into the rough surface and the shadows cast by the sun. Being so small, she was far behind the pair of men, though she could hear their amicable chatter on the wind. 

Just as she had arrived in her hiding place, she saw Mark pick her father up and toss him into the ocean. The man had dissolved almost instantly, his clothing sinking into a current and swept out to sea, his cries dieing as a rapidly fading pool of midnight blue ink swirling into the water. Mark had laughed, a chilling laugh as Quinn watched in mute horror. Even to this day, she could still hear her father’s last words echoing in her head, spoken right before he had disintegrated into nothingness.

“I trusted you, you monster. I thought you were a friend, but I see now that you’re nothing more than a killer.” 

Quinn sighed and shook her head. She had promised herself that she was going to kill Mark for what he had done, not only to her but to the families of his other victims. But ever since he had killed her father - the last of his fifty nine victims - he had vanished. It had been almost ten years since anyone had seen the Seaside Killer, though Quinn was determined to be the one to find him.

With another sigh she rolled over and forced those unpleasant thoughts out of her head. As much as she wanted to satisfy her vendetta, the Zapfish crisis and the Octarians were the most important thing right now. Mark would have to wait.

.........................................................................................................

A knock on the door woke Quinn from her slumber, the girl groaning but getting out of bed. Five hours of sleep were better than no sleep, and she did feel alert and rested. 

“Just a moment.” She yelled, dragging herself out of bed and throwing some clothes on. With a sigh she hurried to the door, opening it up. 

“Oh, hi Dash.” She said, taking in the sight of the grumpy looking light blue Inkling as she gestured for him to come in. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” He grumbled. Quinn let out a bark of laughter.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. “And don’t tell me it’s nothing because you aren’t normally this grumpy.” 

“Ryker was calling you a coward and I kind of yelled at him.” Dash admitted with a sigh, quickly realizing that Quinn wasn’t going to leave him alone until she figured out what was bugging him. “Which reminds me. I owe you a thank you.”

“A thank you for what?” Quinn sounded absolutely mystified. Dash shot her a knowing look, but the girl’s expression didn’t change.

“For last night.” He said. “For saving my friends and I from the Octarians after they invaded the Kelp Dome. I didn’t know you were retrieving the Zapfish.”

Quinn blinked a few times, before looking away.

“Dash, I say this to you with complete and utter sincerity, but are you sure that’s what happened?” She asked. “Cause I sure didn’t know the Octarians were still alive, I thought they died out years ago. I mean, no one’s seen them since the Great Turf War.” 

“I know what I saw.” Dash insisted. “You were dressed in some pretty fresh gear, and you pressed this crazy looking weapon to the back of this one Octoling’s head. Remember, she told you to kill her and you refused. And you let them go, so it wouldn’t cause a mass panic and riots in the city, and then shifted your tentacles to teal, and then -”

Quinn interrupted him with a bitter laugh. 

“Ryker was right.” She informed him. “Dash, I’m not some brave secret agent fighting the Octarians and getting back the Zapfish, I am a coward. I ran off in a blind panic when I saw those strange aircrafts flying overhead. That Inkling you saw is probably a naturally teal Inkling, and just changes her tentacles to look black when she’s fighting the Octarians to hide her identity. For all I know, that girl could very well be a guy. I know you think that it’s me, but after I cut my losses at the Kelp Dome I went home to catch a few z’s.”

Dash looked unconvinced. 

“Then how do you explain the fact that she had black tentacles?” He demanded. “No Inkling can change their tentacles black, except for you. And her tentacles were pitch black. You’re the only naturally black Inkling around.”

“I’m the only black Inkling that we are aware of.” Quinn retorted. “There’s a difference. For all I know, my deadbeat father could have had a few kids on the side, and one of them might be the same way as me.” 

Mentally she cringed, referring to her father as a deadbeat. He was dead, and she knew in her heart that Dash was right, she was the one who had been fighting the Octarians. But she had to convince Dash that he had been mistaken, and she knew just the way to do it.

“Look, I’ll prove to you it wasn’t me.” She said, pulling out her laptop computer. “Here’s security footage of me returning to the building last night as 4:30, about twenty minutes after I fled the Kelp Dome. 

Dash visibly deflated as he watched the footage. On screen, a black tentacled Inkling walked into the lobby of the apartment building at 4:30 in the morning. Quinn had been telling the truth, which meant that whoever had been fighting off the Octarians hadn’t been his friend. 

“Look, I appreciate you sticking up for me, but I wasn’t fighting the Octarians last night.” Quinn said gently as she put the laptop away. “Being a secret agent would be fun and all that, but whoever that black Inkling was, it wasn’t me.” 

“I guess so.” Dash said before sighing. “I still stand by what I said, though. You aren’t a coward.”

“So, you just come here to see if I was that mysterious secret agent?” Quinn asked. Dash shook his head. 

“Nah, I needed to get away from Ryker before I snapped his neck.” He said nonchalantly. “So, do you want to hang out, maybe call up a few friends, form a squad and do some Turf Wars?”

“Eh, why not?” Quinn replied with a smile as she began scrolling through the contacts on her phone, wincing slightly as she looked at her mother’s phone number. Although the phone towers near the city still worked, the ones further out in the country had been shut down almost as soon as the Zapfish crisis had started. With a mental note to hike out to Splashtown and visit her mother and little brother, she continued looking for someone to call. She had no idea if Yusei was in town, and if he was gone, the twins would be too. 

With a shrug, she dialled Mia, hoping that the girl would pick up.

“Hey Quinn.” Mia said as she picked up, a cheerful note in her voice. “What’s up?” 

“Dash and I are looking for people to form a squad and compete in Turf Wars.” Quinn informed her. “You free for the day?”

“I sure am.” Mia sounded excited, really excited. “Let me grab my Carbon Roller and I’ll head on out. I’ll meet you in front of the tower.”

“Okay, later.” Quinn hung up, looking over at Dash as she did. The teen looked up from his phone, having texted someone.

“Langston’s going to be here in five minutes.” He announced. “You ready to go?”

“Let me put on my legal gear and grab my gun, and I’ll be good to go.” She replied with a grin, heading towards her room. “Just give me a minute.”


	24. Squid Squad (part 1)

Langston was at the apartment in no time flat, his .52 Gal Deco holstered by his side. Quinn had changed back into her beginner gear, her Splattershot Jr. all ready to go, and Dash had grabbed his Tri Slosher Noveau from its spot on the couch. The three had recklessly charged out of the apartment, delighted grins on their faces, heading for Inkopolis Tower. One quick super jump later, and they were at the massive structure, meeting up with Mia. The girl had her Carbon Roller resting up against a wall, and her bored expression changed to a look of pure happiness as she caught sight of her friends. 

“The stages go live in five minutes.” Mia cheered, happy to be with her friends. The level fourteen girl had on a pair of black glasses, zombie high-horses, and an away game jersey. She was in a wonderful mood. 

“Well I’m hoping that Saltspray Rig is one of them.” Langston said as he checked his gun out. “That’s my favorite one.” 

“Personally I’m hoping for Walleye Warehouse.” Mia replied. “That one is so much fun!”

“No way!” Dash retorted. “Everyone knows that Camp Triggerfish is awesome.” 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Quinn answered snarkily. That seemed to cut through the brewing argument, and as one the trio turned to face her. 

“Which one do you want?” Mia wondered. Her friend - who was rocking a nice magenta hue - laughed.

“None of the three that you mentioned.” She said. “The odds of any of those three being chosen as one of the two stages is abnormally low. Think about it. There are sixteen stages, and of those only two are chosen for Turf Wars. There is a 1 in 240 chance that both of the stages selected will be two of the three that you are all hoping for.” 

“You’ll be wrong, you’ll see.” Mia replied before focusing her attention on the screen, the two boys following suit. Quinn smirked. She knew that all of them would be disappointed - she had called into the station earlier to see what the stages would be.

Her companions visibly deflated as the stages flashed up on the screen: Port Mackerel and Ancho-V Games. 

“Told you.” Quinn muttered redundantly. Mia pouted while Dash glared at her. Lanston merely laughed.

“Well, that’s the way the ink flies, I guess.” He said. “So, who’s ready for a match?”

“Oh, me, me!” Mia squealed before running towards Inkopolis Tower, Dash hot on her heels. Quinn sighed at their childishness before shoving her hands in her pocket and walking after them, Langston pulling up next to her. 

“So, I’ve been meaning to ask.” He started off. “How come you’re still using your beginner gear? I’d figured that you’d be at least the same level as Mia.” 

“Oh, I ended up injuring myself and I couldn’t do any matches for a few weeks.” The teen replied with a laugh. “I’m such a klutz off the battlefield, I ended up tripping over my own two feet and tumbling down the stairs. Nothing major, just a few pulled muscles. They’re finally healed up, and I can’t wait to get back to fighting.”

“Hey guys, hurry up!” Mia hollered. Langston laughed.

“We’re coming.” He called before turning to Quinn. “We better get going, otherwise they’ll end up splatting some poor kid.” 

.........................................................................................................

The lobby was jampacked with kids eagerly signing up for their matches. Mia and Dash were leaning up against the wall with the launchpads, bored looks on their faces. 

“What took you so long?” Mia asked lazily. “We’ve been waiting for ages.” 

“Yeah right.” Quinn retorted. “So, where are we fighting?”

“We reserved spots for the next eight matches.” Dash reported. “They’re in the Port Mackerel. And I’ve taken the liberty of asking Judd to put us on the list for eight matches this afternoon in Ancho-V Games.” 

“I thought you weren’t allowed to do that.” Quinn innocently replied, a hidden question in her voice. Langston stiffened behind her while Dash blinked before laughing uneasily. 

“Oh, Judd owes me a favor, that’s all.” He said, though the nonchalant tone was forced. “C’mon, the match starts in five minutes. Let’s go!” 

Before anyone could question him, he ran onto the launchpad and super jumped away, Mia following him. Quinn looked over at Langston, a frown on her face.

“He’s hiding something.” She murmured to herself as she watched the dark blue Inkling head off to join their friends. “And something tells me that you are too.”

.........................................................................................................

The fresh salty air assaulted Quinn’s nostrils as the quartet stood in the middle of Port Mackerel. They had been the first to arrive, and thus were taking a moment to scope out the place. 

“Watch out for people hiding behind the boxes.” Langston said to the girl as they ran into the manmade corridors. “It’s an easy way to get caught off guard” 

“Got it.” Quinn replied. “So, what’s the strategy?”

“I think we’re about to find out.” Langston replied as the two returned to the center of the map. “Look’s like the others are waiting for us.”

Sure enough, Langston was right. Dash and Mia were awaiting their arrival, along with four unfamiliar Inklings, all of them girls. They were quickly introduced as Jay, Raven, Yashimabet, and Najie.

“Mrow...Are you all pawsitive you’re ready?” Judd asked. Eight heads simultaneously nodded, and Judd licked one of his paws before rising from his sitting position. 

“Meow...purrfect.” He murmured before walking towards the judging area. The two teams were left in the center, quietly observing each other for a few moments.

“Well, good luck” Jay finally said, a wicked grin crossing her face. “You’ll need it.” 

“Yeah right.” Quinn retorted. “I think you’re going to be the ones who’ll need all the luck in the world to even make a dent in our turf.” Najie laughed.

“Oh, we’ve got a feisty one.” She snickered. “This is going to be the best fight we’ve had in years!” 

Before anyone could fire back with a witty retort the quartet superjumped away. Quinn blinked a few times before sighing.

“Okay, be honest with me.” She said. “How big of a mistake did I make by saying that?”

“I have no idea.” Dash replied as their own squadron headed towards their own spawn point. “Mia, Langston, you guys were here when they arrived. What’s their stats?”

“All of them are level fifty.” Langston reported. “They’ve been on the Turf Wars scene for several years. Jay has an E Liter 3K Scope, Najie uses a Custom Dual Jet Squelcher, Yashimabet wields a Custom Range Blaster and Raven’s weapon of choice is the Forge Splattershot Pro. They’ve all got excellent range, and in a place like this with long corridors and tons of corners we’ll mostly be on the defensive.”

“I’ve fought on this stage a lot.” Mia piped up. “They’ll most likely place squid beacons in hard to reach places. If you stumble on one, disable it with your gun. Drop bombs right at corners, too. They’ll go around to splat you, only to be caught in the blast radius. Other than that, don’t do anything rash.” 

“Mia’s right.” Dash added. “We’ve got to pull out all the stops if we’re going to win. When any of you super jump back into the fight, immediately go into squid mode and swim left or right; otherwise you’ll just be splatted.”

“Okay, anything else?” Quinn wondered as the countdown began, her tentacles already a beautiful medium blue from being submerged in the spawn point. Across the stage she could see four green squids awaiting the signal, weapons ready.

As it turned out, she would never get an answer. The buzzer sounded and her three teammates rocketed off the spawn point; Dash and Mia running on down the ramp while Langston headed for one of the side exits. 

“Take care of the turf around the spawn point, and then head that way.” He called, pointing towards a raised pathway. “Be careful.”

“I don’t know the meaning of the word careful.” Quinn retorted before quickly inking the area around the spawn point. She then charged down the path, blue ink flying everywhere, and soon was lost in the sea of shipping containers. Langston rolled his eyes before running down his own path. He knew that Quinn would be careful if she was forced to, and in a situation such as this, with enemies who had weapons well suited to the stage, she would swallow her pride and proceed with caution. At least, he hoped she would; he certainly didn’t want the rookie to get hurt.

He came to a screeching halt as he realized that he was worried about a girl that he had hung out with exactly once. Why on earth was he so worried about her? Mia had been doing Turf Wars for the same amount of time as Quinn had, but yet he did not feel any bit of worry in the slightest for the girl. No, it had to be because she had been an avid player since day one, whereas Quinn had barely done any fighting. That had to be it.

“Yo Langston, get a move on!” Dash yelled as he respawned at the spawn point, shaking his head to clear it. He had been caught between the vice of doom, AKA Jay and Raven. They had managed to splat the boy at the same time, and the poor boy had been left dazed from the combined impact of an E-Liter 3K Scope and a Custom Dual Jet Squelcher. “We aren’t going to win if you’re just going to stand there!” 

“Sorry!” The boy replied as he forced his body to move again. He could not afford to be distracted by anyone; not even Quinn. With a shake of his head, Langston charged down the path of boxes. He had a Turf War to win.


	25. Squid Squad (part 2)

Quinn snuck a glance around the corner, only to pull back as a trail of ink split the sky, slamming into the ground with enough force to splat Mia, who had failed to realize the danger she was in. All was not lost, however, as the girl had managed to take out Yashimabet right before she was sent back to the spawn point. 

She sighed before stiffening and turning around, dropping the bomb she had been arming on the ground and bringing her gun up into the ready position in one smooth motion. Unbeknownst to her Dash was hiding nearby, observing the girl quietly. The boy hadn’t bought his friend’s earlier story, the one that she was not the secret agent. 

Dash wanted so desperately to believe her, but there were too many things that didn’t add up. Quinn was too well trained for the amount of Turf Wars she had been in, and the girl wasn’t a natural born fighter - she made too many mistakes to be a genius in the art of fighting. Even now, while most rookies would fumble with their weapons as they prepped and armed the bomb, she had done it with one hand, without looking at the explosive. And now she was leaned against the wall, waiting for her next move. No, not waiting, the smirk on her face told a different story, that she was plotting. 

Deliberately, she turned her back to one of the paths, instead prepping a wild charge across the gap in the crates. Najie sprang out behind her, ready to splat away, when the bomb blew up. The poor girl was unceremoniously whisked away back to her spawn point, the remnants of her body fading into a puddle of green ink. Quinn smirked as her tentacles flashed, the ends glowing. With a wordless shout she recklessly charged out of her hiding spot, activating her bubbler. Some of it sprang over to cover Dash in a forcefield, but Quinn either didn’t notice or care. She knew what her target was.

Jay snapped off a shot at the girl before realizing that she was protected by the bubbler. Desperately the green Inkling tried to retreat, but Quinn threw a bomb behind her, blocking her escape. The girl was caught at the edge of the blast, not enough to splat Quinn’s target, but enough that a few ink bullets courtesy of the girl, and Jay was nothing more than a puddle of ink. Moments later the bubbler faded. 

Quinn took a moment to wipe the sweat off of her brow before looking behind her.

“Enjoying the show, Dash?” She asked sweetly before running off. Dash slowly slipped back into his humanoid form, staring after her in amazement. She had known he was there the whole time. 

He didn’t stand there for long, however. Raven snuck up behind him and splatted the boy before he could recover his wits. The silent girl smiled briefly before glancing up at the map high above them. They were winning, barely. 

With an almost predatory grin she slunk back into enemy territory. The blue team wouldn’t know what hit them. 

.........................................................................................................

Thirty seconds later, another skirmish was starting in the center. Raven had managed to sneak into enemy territory, though it wasn’t long before Mia and Dash had pushed her back. Langston and Quinn, on the other hand, were taking the high roads away from the spawn point, and were currently toying with Jay. The pair were dancing back and forth, cutting the wildest capers as they taunted the charger wielding girl. 

“Na-na-na-na-neh! You can’t hit us!” Quinn hollered in a sing-songy tone as she darted out from hiding, sticking her tongue out at her opponent. Jay scowled and took aim, but before she could lock onto her target Quinn had safely dove back behind the crates. Jay smirked before swimming closer and standing back up. With a confident grin, she took aim again. This was going to be fun.

Several seconds passed, however, and there had yet to be another sighting of the two lunaticks. Jay frowned. Something wasn’t right. 

“Bonzai!” Quinn whooped as she jumped the girl from behind. In a panic Jay turned around to face her, realizing too late that the girl had a bomb in her hands, and not her gun. Before she could turn back, however, Langston had splatted her.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” He asked. Quinn merely laughed before scaling one of the moving cars. She fired three times into the air, the signal for her teammates to join them. 

Moments later Dash and Mia touched down, guns blazing. The numbers were on their side for a moment, until the green team jumped them. The center clearing became a chaotic battlefield, even as a pleasant automated voice filled the air. 

“Ten...nine...eight...seven...six…”

Quinn tossed another splat bomb before taking aim at Najie. The girl managed to get her, however, and with a yelp Quinn was flying back towards the spawn point, the girl having super jumped away just in time. Desperately she cleaned the ink off and jumped back to her team, arming a bomb in the air. 

“Five...four..three…”

Dash became the first casualty of the firefight, his blue ghost spiraling off into the air. The boy had been taken out by Raven who, with the precision of an assassin quickly turned and took out Mia. Langston was in her sights when Quinn touched down. She had just enough time to throw the bomb when Jay nailed her dead on, avenging her earlier humiliation.   
“Two…”

Langston was the last to fall, Raven having splatted him, but before she could retreat the bomb blew up, splatting both her and Yashimabet. Najie and Jay quickly advanced, covering as much turf as possible. 

“One…”

A whistle blew, and the girls stopped firing. Back at the spawn point, the entire blue team respawned, several of them groaning as the areas where the pressurized ink had hit them began to ache. 

Quinn and Mia instantly ran towards the center of the stage, hoping desperately that they had still managed to pull out the win. Langston and Dash followed at a more sedate pace, having enough experience to realize that they had barely lost. 

“So, what do you think of that Raven girl?” Dash wondered. Langston shrugged, idly flipping his gun into the air and catching it. 

“She’s pretty good.” He replied. “It’s been awhile since I’ve seen someone that accurate with a Forge Splattershot Pro. Seems like she’d be perfect for the group. We should get the other squad members numbers, too. They all have a shot at making it into the house.”

As quickly as the conversation started, however, did it die away. The two boys reached the center of the stage, standing by the rest of their squads. The two groups looked up at Judd hopefully as the cat began to dance. 

He then pulled out a green flag and waved it in the air, pointing over at Jay’s squad. Quinn sighed in frustration, while Mia groaned. Dash and Langston merely stood there, calmly accepting their loss.

“Mrow...Green squad wins, 50.6% to 50.4%” He purred before beginning to distribute coins to the participants. 

“Hey, that was a good fight.” Jay said as her team walked over, graciously accepting their congratulations. Najie smiled.

“Yeah, it’s been awhile since we’ve been pushed that hard.” She added, before throwing a look over at Raven. The girl was talking to Judd in a hushed tone of voice. “I suppose if it hadn’t been for her we would have lost. Still, even she worked up a sweat, and that’s pretty impressive since she never has to work that hard in a Turf War.”

“Same here.” Dash replied. “It’s been awhile since I’ve had that close of a match.” Langston nodded once, a grin on his face.

“Yeah, why don’t the eight of us exchange numbers?” He suggested. “I don’t know about my squadmates, but I’m going to want a rematch.” 

“You’re on!” Yashimabet cheered as Raven walked over, a thoughtful look on her face. What was troubling the girl was beyond anyone else, though, and she wasn’t in the mood to share her thoughts. Nevertheless she provided her number to the others when prompted. 

“C’mon guys!” Mia yelled from the launchpad as Quinn super jumped back to Inkopolis Tower. “We’re going to miss our next match!” 

Without missing a beat she followed her friend. Dash sighed while Langston merely laughed and murmured something about impatient rookies. The pair recognized the truth to their teammate’s words, however, and quickly bid the other team goodbye. They then walked towards the launchpad, when a word from Raven stopped them.

“Wasn’t that girl the black Inkling?” She asked. Dash and Langston looked at each other in shock. They had never seen Raven in their lives before, and as far as they knew, neither had Quinn. 

Taking their stunned looks and silence as an answer, a ghost of a smile graced Raven’s face. 

“I thought so.” She murmured before turning and walking away.


	26. Squid Squad (part 3)

“Whew, I’m beat.” Dash groaned as he and Mia flopped down in their respective chairs. Their morning matches had gone quite well; aside from their narrow loss in the first match they had utterly creamed the rest of their opponents.

By the time they had finished their eight matches the sun was high in the sky. Rumbling stomachs led them to one of the more popular cafes that surrounded Inkopolis Plaza, and the four Inklings were eager for some lunch. 

“Hi Beat.” Quinn said with a smirk as she set down one of the trays of food on the table; the tempting aroma of fried krill and cod kabobs filling the air. Bottles of milk and lemon tea, Octopies, and Ink Bomb donuts rounded out the meal. “The name’s Quinn, freshest squid this side of Inkopolis Tower. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

Dash glared at her for a moment, while beside him Mia burst out laughing, echoed by a quiet chuckle from Langston. Dash’s glare intensified as Quinn smirked at him, a pleased look on her face, before the boy sighed.

“I suppose I did walk into that one.” He said before grabbing one of the kabobs. That moment shocked the others back to their senses, and as one they fell upon the meal with the savageness of wolves, an enormous quantity of food disappearing into their hungry maws in a remarkably short amount of time. 

Quinn was enjoying herself immensely, when her squid phone began to vibrate. She frowned and stood up. 

“Excuse me for a moment.” She said politely, though it appeared that her comment went unnoticed. Carefully she walked off to a nearby back alley to take the call, unaware that Langston had snuck away after her. Dash and Mia were too busy stuffing their faces to realize that their friends had gone. 

Langston crept towards the mouth of the alley, peeking around the side of the building. In the dim lighting he could see Quinn standing against the wall, her eyes scanning the surrounding area. 

“Yeah, what’s up?” She asked the person on the other end of the line, followed by a frown as the other person answered. Her bronze skin turned white, and Langston narrowed his eyes as he observed her. Something had to be wrong. 

“Yes sir.” Quinn replied, nodding once. “No, sir, I can’t go now. I’m with my friends, and if I sneak off now they might follow me.” More garbled responses from Quinn’s mysterious caller. 

“Sir, with all due respect, I can’t put all of our lives in danger by sneaking off.” Quinn was tense now, though she managed to keep her voice soft. “Dash managed to catch a glimpse of me at the Kelp Dome last night. I barely managed to convince him that he must have seen someone else. If I sneak off now, he might do something rash, like follow me. We can’t stop the Octarians if what we’re doing is exposed.” 

That was enough to set alarm bells off in Langston’s head. Quinn was fighting the Octarians? How was that possible? The Octarians had been extinct for almost a century. 

Dimly he could hear Quinn ending the call, and as quietly as he could Langston ran back towards the cafe. He arrived just as his friends began fighting over the last Octopie. The boy sighed and cut it in half, handing each Inkling their respective portions.

“Where’d you go?” Dash asked as he shoved his half into his mouth. Langston shrugged as nonchalantly as he could manage. 

“Oh, I just thought I saw Harold, and figured I’d go say hello.” He replied as Quinn walked back to join the group. She had a smile on her face, but to Langston’s eyes it seemed forced, and the girl had a rigid posture that she had not had mere moments ago. 

“So, everyone all ready to go?” She wondered. “The turf’s not going to ink itself you know.” 

“Oh, I’m so ready!” Mia squealed, hopped up on sugar. With a wild look in her eyes she tore out of the cafe, snagging her Carbon Roller on the way out. Dash chased after her, his Tri Slosher Nouveau held fast in his hands. He was in such a hurry that he almost plowed right into another Inkling. 

“Whoops, sorry!” He said before running off. Langston sighed, before pulling the boy to his feet.

“I apologize for his actions.” He said as Quinn nodded once.

“Yeah, Dash is quite the immature little...you!” She paled as she realized who Dash had knocked over. 

“Yeah, me.” Ryker scowled as he brushed some nonexistent dirt off his clothes. “I didn’t think I’d run into you here, rookie.” 

“Considering that Quinn’s helped us win the last few matches our squad was in, I don’t think that title is warranted.” Langston replied. Ryker laughed bitterly. 

“Yeah right, she’s nothing more than a coward and a rookie that’s gotten lucky.” He retorted. Quinn sighed and shook her head. She really wanted to lay into the boy right then and there, but she had better things to do.

“Believe what you want to, Ryker.” She said as she walked away, grabbing Langston roughly by the arm and hauling him towards Inkopolis Tower. “Whatever I say won’t change your mind, and I have better things to do than sitting here and wasting both my time and energy arguing with a stubborn fool like yourself. Smell ya later!”

Ryker turned purple at the snide comment, but before he could start yelling the duo had vanished into the crowd. 

.........................................................................................................

Ancho-V Games looked like someone had dropped a giant burst bomb on the entire game studio, covering the majority of the stage in magenta paint. It was a spectacular mess, a glorious masterpiece of violent color thrown about like a toddler in a tantrum hurling toys everywhere. 

Quinn couldn’t have been happier as she hid as close to the enemy’s spawn point as she could. Her team was winning by a huge margin, the four of them bottlenecking the enemy in at their spawn points. Mia and Dash were off guarding the exits in the main area, while Langston and Quinn had infiltrated enemy territory. Quinn was hiding on the wall right below the spawn point while Langston was drawing the enemy out. They had a pretty good system going - One of them would taunt their opponents into leaving the high ground and the other would spring out and splat them. The pair had racked up several splats already, and there were still fifteen seconds left in this last match.

“Man, these people are so gullible.” Quinn said as yet another Inkling fell victim to her Splattershot Jr. Langston shrugged. 

“People do dumb things when they’re mad.” He replied as he switched places with his friend. Quinn laughed.

“Oh well, more points for us.” She replied before tossing a bomb up on the ledge, catching a male Inkling by surprise. With a startled yelp he jumped off the edge, some of the ink causing minor damage. He met an unfortunate end at the hands of the .52 Gal Deco that Langston wielded with pinpoint accuracy. 

Moments later the buzzer sounded, signifying the end of the match. The two teams once again gathered in the center to await the results. It was a bit redundant - everyone knew that the magenta team had crushed the green team. 

Sure enough, when Judd proclaimed the final tallies, Quinn’s team had dominated the others, 72.8% of the turf covered compared to the 15.3% the green team managed to control. It was never a question as to who had won in the first place. The green team was naturally disappointed, but nonetheless accepted their loss graciously. Judd quickly distributed their winnings and then the group left, the entire stage shutting down for the night moments later.

.........................................................................................................

“Hey Quinn, take a look at this.” Dash said as the group walked out of Inkopolis Tower ten minutes later. He had grabbed a piece of paper from a stack of flyers on his way out the door and quickly began scanning it. “Apparently they’re starting up a new level system.” 

“Really.” Quinn said in surprise. “What’s it involve?”

“According to this they’re distributing cards with a computer chip inside next week.” He replied. “After a match you slot them into a computer and it updates your stats automatically.”

“Stats?” Mia wondered. Langston nodded. 

“Yeah. There are basic stats, such as level and rank, but it also updates your gear, abilities, and weapons. It also doubles as a credit card, so instead of carrying around nine million coins Inklings can carry one compact card to make any purchases at the stores.” 

“Sounds like you had a hand in developing these things.” Quinn innocently pointed out. “Since you know so much about them.”

“No, I just saw that same flyer the other day.” He replied. It technically wasn’t a lie. He had seen that flyer the other day...in one of the house meetings. But a truth without all the details was still a truth, right?

Quinn shrugged but before she could pursue the matter any further her phone rang again. With a sigh she answered it. 

“Hello?” She asked in a neutral voice. “Yes...no, I’m not busy...yes, I’m in the city...yes, I’m still with my friends...What? You must be kidding...alright, I understand. I’ll be there a soon as possible...okay, bye.” 

With a frustrated sigh she shut the phone off. 

“So, apparently my best friend from back home tried walking to Inkopolis and fell off a cliff.” She said, lying through her teeth. “I’m going to have to go and get her.”

“You want us to come?” Mia wondered. Quinn laughed.

“Oh, believe me, I’d love too.” She said. “I walked to Inkopolis once, and that was enough for me.” The black tentacled Inkling sighed. “However, Lani is rather nervous around other people, which is why I’m surprised that she’s coming here, so I probably should go alone. I better get going.”

“Make sure you stop by the shops when you get back.” Dash said. “You’re level six now, so you should be able to buy some stuff in Booyah Base.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Quinn replied. “Thanks for the fun and games, guys. Later!” 

With that she walked into one of the back alleys. Mia also bid her farewells and headed towards her home. 

“We should get going.” Langston suggested. Dash shook his head.

“You go on without me.” He said. “There’s something I want to see first.” 

With that he ran off in the same direction as Quinn had taken. He tailed the Inkling through the alleys, careful to remain out of sight. The girl took a winding path, one that eventually led them back to the main plaza. It was empty now, the young teens all at home. Dash frowned, noting that it was almost midnight; an hour after all Inklings were supposed to return to their homes.

“What’s she doing back here?” He murmured to himself as he fumbled for something in his pocket. “Especially after curfew.”

As he watched Quinn looked around before crossing over to Judd’s favorite napping spot. The cat had also returned to his humble abode, and the place was abandoned. The girl smirked before sighing.

“I do hate lying to them.” She mused aloud. “But if the others find out that the Octarians are back, there’s going to be widespread panic. Oh well, I suppose I’ve stayed long enough.”

With a sly smirk on her face she turned into a squid and vanished. Dash’s heart skipped a beat until he realized that the girl had merely slipped into the sewer tunnels. The boy sighed in relief before glancing down at the squid phone he held in his hands, the camera positioned so that it faced the plaza. He had managed to get a recording, but only time would tell if it was of a good quality. 

His mission accomplished, Dash crossed the plaza alone. With a nod to the security squid, he walked through the doors of the House of Hundred, leaving the desolate plaza behind.

.........................................................................................................

The trip through the sewer was just as long and stinky as Quinn remembered. With a sigh she climbed out of the tunnels, emerging into the moonlit night in Octo Valley. 

“Agent 3, reporting in sir!” She said as she snapped to attention. Cap’n Cuttlefish briefly saluted in return before ordering her to stand down and go get suited up. Quinn retreated into the shack, pulling her weapons and gear off the shelf. Ducking behind the partition, she quickly began to get changed into her Hero Suit. 

“We’re back, boss!” She heard an oddly familiar voice say. “The scouting mission was a success!” 

“Glad you’re all safe, buckos!” The captain replied. “Agent 3’s just getting suited up, and then you’ll all head out for a little old fashioned espionage.”

“Negative, sir.” Another strangely familiar voice - though this one was male as opposed to the first speaker, who was female - reported. “We’ve got trouble: one Octostriker heading for Inkopolis as fast as that slimy UFO can carry it.” 

“Then as soon as Agent 3 is ready, you’ll head out to destroy it.” Cap’n Cuttlefish replied. 

“I’m locked and loaded, sir!” Quinn said as she walked out of the shack...only to freeze in shock. Three Inklings - one girl and two boys - dressed in identical Hero Suits to hers stood by her leader. One of the boys, the green one, held a gun identical to hers, while the blue one had a nasty looking charger. The only girl, whose tentacles were orange, had a roller. However, that wasn’t what shocked Quinn.

No, it was the fact that Agent 3 recognized her colleagues. 

“Yusei?” She asked. “Flora? Fabio?” As each of their names passed her lips, the respective Inkling nodded. “What are the three of you doing here?”


	27. Unidentified Flying Object (part 1)

“So let me get this straight.” Quinn said as the quartet ran through Octo Valley, heading for the last remaining kettle in the second area. “The three of you have been working for Cap’n Cuttlefish for the past several months, before the Zapfish Crisis, and have been working behind the scenes ever since?”

“That about covers it.” Yusei admitted as they came to a stop at the ancient transportation device. “Alright, to business. We’re going up against an Octostriker. Stay hidden as much as possible - if you’re in plain sight for too long, that Octostriker going to send an inkstrike your way.”

“So, where is this thing?” Quinn wondered.

“You remember the place we showed you a few tricks?” Fabio asked. “The Octostriker’s hanging out there.”

“Let’s talk later, say, after we’ve kicked some Octarian butt!” Flora piped up, interrupting her brother. Yusei nodded.

“Agreed.” He said, taking charge of the operation. “Let’s move out!” 

HIs companions saluted, and then one by one they slipped into the kettle and vanished in a puff of steam. 

.........................................................................................................

The quartet emerged slightly outside of Urchin Underpass, climbing up the tresses that held the bridge up. High in the sky, a mere dot in reality, they could see the UFO that the Octostriker occupied. Yusei pulled out his Hero Charger and shot off a blast of pressurized ink towards the flying vehicle. It obviously fell short, but that wasn’t what Yusei was counting on. With a frown he studied the ink trail with a critical eye. 

“We’re about eighty klicks away.” He murmured. “There doesn’t seem to be any wind. Good.” 

“Hey boss, can we get this show on the road?” Flora asked, glancing down at the ground. Fabio was messing around with a launchpad, setting it up so that it would vanish after they made the leap. “We need to get this show on the road before daylight.”

“Sure thing, just give me a second.” He replied before looking over at Quinn. “You up for learning how to use a seeker?”

“What’s a seeker?” She wondered. Yusei smiled before pulling out a crazy looking bomb.

“This is a seeker.” The teen informed her. “You arm it just like a splat bomb, but instead of throwing it, it travels along the ground in a straight line or it homes in on an enemy. It takes up a lot of ink, but it leaves a trail for you to swim in. You’ll need it to face the Octostriker.” 

Quickly he grabbed the sack of bombs and began examining it, requesting 300 power eggs to upgrade it. Quinn handed them over, and soon the boy had finished his work.

“The left compartment has splat bombs.” He explained. “The right one has seekers. You ready, kid?”

“I was born ready.” Quinn retorted as the trio joined Fabio on the ground. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Agent 4 and I will find some high places to cover you guys.” Flora explained as the quartet tensed up on the launchpad, ready for the jump. “If things get messy, I’ll jump in to provide melee support. You’ll be sticking with my brother, Agent 3. Make sure you hide as much as possible. The two of you should be able to see the inkstrikes a few moments before they hit. Whatever the situation, get out of there fast.” 

“There’s a five minute cooldown between inkstrikes.” Fabio informed his partner as they suddenly rocketed off of the launchpad, flying through the air towards the battle zone. They touched down on a makeshift spawn point that the special forces had placed on their earlier espionage mission. “After it launches one, we can run around freely without fear of retribution. Just be careful, alright?”

“Talk later!” Yusei barked, slipping into command mode. “Move, now, before that Octostriker sees us!”

Flora jumped towards a tree nearby, scrambling up the branches with a cat-like ease. Yusei inked a trail up a small building and snapped off a few shots to create a hiding place. Fabio and Quinn tossed out seekers and dove into the ink trails the motorized explosives left. Not a moment too soon, as the group had attracted the attention of the Octostriker. 

As the two reached cover, an inkstrike blossomed to life, the deep fuchsia ink tornado coating the ground around the spawn point, destroying it. Fabio heaved a sigh of relief before looking over at Quinn. The girl was staring at what what used to be the spawn point in shock. 

“No way…” She murmured. “That thing’s got some power.” 

“Even more reason not to be on the receiving end of that thing.” Fabio replied. “Let’s go! We have maybe six hours to sunrise, and if we haven’t stopped this thing by then, thousands of innocent Inklings will be killed.”

“Then we better end this quick!” Quinn retorted before springing towards an unsuspecting Octotrooper and splatting it with ease. Fabio recklessly charged towards another of the enemies, and it too soon fell victim to the highly trained Inkling. Two hidden ones sprang out at him, but Flora hopped out of the tree, roller raised high above her head.

“Leave him alone!” She yelled before bringing it down on the two Octotroopers, sending them flying. They hit the wall of the building that Yusei was on, out cold. 

Flora raced back to the tree while the ground troops slipped back into the ink - all four members of the squad had turned a golden yellow-orange hue before embarking on the missions, so they would not be hindered by the opposing ink colors - to hide. They were not a moment too soon, for almost instantly the Octostriker awoke from its stupor. It sat up in its murky ink pool, beady eyes searching the ground below it for its prey. None of the Inklings moved, and after a while the Octostriker relaxed. 

Fabio slid back into his human form, a fully armed seeker in his hands. The boy threw his weapon to the ground, and it began to beep and whirr as it snaked across the ground, blowing up a short distance away. Fabio gestured for Quinn to swim after it, which the girl did so. Her partner remained out in the open, waiting. 

With a roar the Octostriker fired again, the recoil stunning the beast. Fabio dove into the ink and began to swim for all his worth, barely outrunning the deadly weapon. Quinn sprang out of the ink and splatted another Octotrooper, while high above her Yusei’s charger fired, snagging the one sneaking up on the girl. Fabio caught his breath before splatting the last Octotrooper in the area. 

“All clear!” He radioed, and soon Flora and Yusei joined the two squids on the ground, the former hitting her brother in the head.

“That’s for being so reckless!” She snapped. Fabio groaned and rubbed his head, sure that it would bruise in the morning. Muttering an apology under his breath the quartet ran around the corner, diving back into their own ink as the Octostriker fired off another shot.

.........................................................................................................

Odette frowned as she stood on the UFO, watching as the four Inklings easily splatted her troops. They were taking advantage of the recoil damage that affected the rookie Octostriker. The elite lieutenant frowned and snuck a glance over at the giant mutated Octobomber. The fat, lazy oaf was relaxing in his pool of ink with hardly a care in the world. Odette sighed in disgust before looking over at her troops. Each one was armed with a single inkstrike, the large missiles making the Octotroopers look comically small. Sure, the recoil would knock them all out - that had been why the Octostrikers had been engineered to be so large, so they were more than a one-shot weapon - but if it stopped the Inklings, it would be a small price to pay. 

“Fire on my mark.” She ordered the dozen troops, who saluted and .prepped their oversized weapons. Odette’s eyes drifted back towards the Octostriker, waiting.

Like a lightning bolt it stood up and shot off an inkstrike, the recoil once again stunning it. Odette smirked as she saw the Inklings on the ground begin to scatter. 

“Fire.” She ordered.

.........................................................................................................

Down on the ground, the Inkling squad had entered the long corridor where Quinn had first impressed Yusei with her battle reflexes. They would have progressed into the manmade tunnel, but the Octostriker had cornered them with another inkstrike. The four of them were pressed against the back of the wall, the missile just barely grazing them. 

With confidence the group began to cover the ground, only to freeze as yet another inkstrike landed just behind them, the group barely dodging it. After that things went south, rather quickly.

Suddenly first one, then another, and then another inkstrike - at least a dozen - began to rain down from the sky. All thought of inking turf abandoned, the group ran through the tunnel, just barely remaining ahead of the deadly weapons.

“How is this possible?” Flora gasped out.

“Talk later!” Her brother yelled. “Move, now!” 

And move they did, running for all their might. Desperately they charged down the corridor, dodging crumbled piles of rubble that the inkstrike had left strewn about. Quinn stumbled a bit over one such pile, though Yusei quickly steadied her. It was a race against time to see who would win out - the two agents or the inkstrikes. 

In the end, Quinn’s fall cost her. Yusei just managed to clear the inkstrikes, but the black Inkling felt the full force of one of the giant purple missiles. With a pain-wracked scream she burst apart, her physical body vanishing as her tiny little ghost floated back towards the last checkpoint they had passed. With a dull groan, she reformed, wincing as she gingerly began to swim around. The Octarian inkstrikes hurt even more than the ones in Turf Wars, and the girl knew that she would have bruises in the morning.


	28. Unidentified Flying Object (part 2)

By the time Quinn caught back up to the others, they had almost cleared the massive area, thoughtfully leaving a crate of armour for the girl, who decided to announce her presence by taking out an Octarian soldier that was giving Yusei some trouble. 

“Sorry I’m late.” She hissed, dodging another shot and tag-teaming with Flora to take out two more of the invaders. “What did I miss?”

“Oh, just the usual.” Flora replied. “Splatting Octarians, dodging sudden death from the skies, inking turf.”

“So I haven’t missed anything.” Quinn sighed as the armour attached itself to her clothing.

“Yep!” Flora chirped happily. “Isn’t that grand?”

“Act hyper later.” Fabio suggested tersely. “For now, let’s just focus on our mission.”

“Agent 5’s right.” Yusei added as he took out the last of the grunts, the four Agents stealthily swimming towards the end of the wide open space, being careful to stick to their own ink colors. More inkstrikes rained down behind them, more than the sole Octostriker could fire in one go. 

“Hey Four.” Quinn said as she dodged another one of the rockets. “I thought that there was only one Octostriker.” 

“There is.” Yusei replied as the twins rushed on ahead, taking out more of the Octotroopers. “And before you ask, I have no idea how it is managing to fire this many inkstrikes in such a short timeframe.”

“What is an Octostriker, anyway?” His companion wondered, pausing a moment to arm a seeker before sending it on its way. The robotic bomb began to beep as it homed in on a hidden Octarian grunt, splatting the soldier before it could get away. Yusei picked off another one that had snuck up on Fabio with his charger, before diving back into the ink to avoid drawing the attention of their main opponent. 

“It’s a genetically modified Octobomber.” Yusei replied. “The Octarian scientists did something crazy to its genes, and it gained the ability to shoot inkstrikes from its head. As a drawback, though, it swelled up to an enormous size, so it can’t fly for long periods of time. It also has no real means of protecting itself when it is stunned, so it only shoots when necessary. The UFO has a team of grunts on it to protect the Octostriker from any threat.” 

“Sounds like my kind of party.” Quinn murmured to herself as they climbed up the small half pipes, slipping over to the place where the girl had first learned how to increase the distance that she leaped by swimming for a while to build up a speed. A gusher had been installed before the small steps to the jump, and a mesh bridge had been put into place. 

“Alright, here’s the plan.” Yusei hissed. “Three, you’re going to go lay down ink under that bridge in case we have to make a quick getaway or if one of us misses the jump. Five, you are going to use that gusher to get a higher vantage point and splat any enemies nearby. Six and I will cover you.”

Fabio nodded before tossing out a burst bomb to activate the gusher, while Quinn armed and launched to seekers. Flora and Yusei began to lay down splat bombs behind them, creating a veritable minefield that any Octarian troop would have to cross to get to the quartet of Inklings. Two of the Twintentacle Octarian troops sprang up from their hiding spots just before the metal mesh bridge when they heard the gusher activate, but for the moment no one was in sight.

Then Fabio stood up and tossed four burst bombs down onto them, splatting the enemies before they could react. Quinn ignored their fading cries for the moment, catching a glimpse of the others dragging the grunts’ unconscious bodies out of the way. No, she was much more interested in the red crate that was just below the mesh bridge. It was extremely well hidden, which could only mean one thing: it was a special. With a grin, the girl smashed the crate, wondering which one it was. It could be a bomb rush, or an inkzooka, or maybe even a bubbler. All would be very useful to the girl. 

Sadly, her hopes were dashed when a tattered scroll fell out. The girl almost screamed in frustration, before recalling where she was. Instead she sighed and carefully placed it in her pocket. She'd have time to examine it later, in the safety of her bedroom, along with all the others that she had found in Octo Valley.

“C’mon, Three!” She heard Flora chirp. “We’ve got work to do!”

“I’m on my way!” She yelled back as she swam around to the front again, joining the others on the steps below the bridge. The girl smirked as the squad sailed over the jump, avoiding attracting the Octostriker’s attention. For a moment she considered standing up and playing chicken with the beast, but thought better of it. Besides, the mutant would have company soon enough.

.........................................................................................................

High above the Underpass, the most unusual of duos watched as the four agents began to make the final climb up to the launchpad that would take them to the Octostriker’s UFO. The pair was not unusual because of their gear - A set of shoes similar to Hero Runners, a high tech half-visor, shorts, and a chest plate similar to the kind that Octolings wore - nor was it due to the fact that one held a Kelp Splatterscope and that the other held an Octobrush Nouveau. No, it was due to the fact that one was an Inkling, and the other was an Octoling. 

“Take a look, Nox.” The Octoling said as she brushed a piece of kelp out of her eyes. Her tentacles were bronze, the sign of an outcast. She pointed down towards Quinn, who had been badly frightened by the launch of another inkstrike, the shock causing her to temporarily drop her yellow hue and revert to her black one. “The information that Kai and Seabass dug up was right. There is another black Inkling out there.” 

“That’s irrelevant.” Nox replied dismissively, her voice quiet and ruthless. “And you keep on forgetting that we’re on a mission, Sigma. Delta and Omega aren’t going to like it if anyone discovers us, especially if that someone is the Octarian army. The fact that you and Delta both have the marks of an outcast is bad enough; you don’t need to go shouting our names out to anyone who is nearby.” 

“Who’s going to hear us up here, Alpha?” Sigma protested. “The only forces around at this point are on that UFO.” 

“Regardless, it’s better to be safe than splatted.” Alpha retorted as she holstered her Kelp Splatterscope on her back. “We should go, we aren’t going to have to step in here.” 

With that she jumped down to the ground, landing lightly on her feet. Without a glance backwards she began walking towards the river that the overpass crossed, where in the distance a small boat could be seen. Sigma sighed and followed her. She would have thought that Alpha would have been happy to know that she wasn’t a complete and total freak, a one of a kind mutant, but apparently her partner couldn’t have cared less.


	29. Unidentified Flying Object (part 3)

Quinn frowned as she studied the UFO from below, before glancing over at the horizon. The sun was beginning to peek out from its hiding spot, which meant that dawn was upon them. The group had to finish off the Octostriker before it could kill any innocents. 

With a grim look she swam over to the launchpad, joined silently by Yusei and the twins. As one the group tensed up and launched themselves into the air, flying towards the flying saucer. A quartet of thunks heralded their arrival, and with that rather plain and normal noise they suddenly found themselves in a chaotic battlefield. 

Octarian troops were stationed in four places on the battlefield, guns held at the ready. The Octostriker was lazing about in its pool of murky magenta ink, though with a roar it jerked upright and flew into the air, wobbling a bit as it tried to steady itself. Without waiting for the agents to get their bearings, the small army began to attack.

“Five, cover me!” Yusei snapped, transitioning into the role of a commander. “Six, take care of those Octarian troops. Three, you and I have the big guy.” 

Flora wasted no time smashing her roller over the head of the nearest Octarian troop, while Fabio immediately took out one that was threatening to splat Yusei. Quinn wasted no time running towards the Octostriker, feeling the same adrenaline rush that she felt in the Kelp Dome wash over her. Ducking and dodging the attacks of the Octarians that tried to nab the girl, she could dimly hear some of the troops cry out as they were knocked out. A loud thunk split the sky, and seconds later a trail of pressurized ink nabbed the Octostriker dead on. 

The beast growled and flew a good distance away, launching another inkstrike towards the sniper. Yusei and Fabio dove back into the ink that Flora had laid down to avoid it, and the recoil from the missile stunned the mutant Octobomber. Fortunately it didn’t fall, as it would have crushed anyone unfortunate enough to be standing below it. 

Yusei swam around to the side and snapped off another shot, nailing the Octostriker that was flying back over the UFO. Flora bowled over two more Octarian troops before yelping as a trio of shots managed to take her out, a little yellow ghost zipping back to the last checkpoint. Behind her stood Odette, a grin on her face. 

“Change of plans!” Yusei shouted over to Quinn. “You get big and ugly over there, I’ll take on the Octoling, and Fabio will take care of the troops!” 

With that he switched his focus to the elite Octoling, while Fabio grimly began to avenge his fallen sister. Down below Flora was running back to the launchpad as fast as she could, but it would take her a few minutes to reach it. They were down a man. 

With a sigh, the girl dodged another shot from an Octarian before diving into the yellow ink, swimming towards the Octostriker. With a roar it launched another inkstrike, the very edges catching Quinn. Splotches of fuchsia ink appeared on her body, but the girl ignored them for the moment and charged recklessly towards her opponent, gun blazing. Her aim was true, and slowly the Octostriker began to shrink in on itself as its body became saturated with the yellow substance. 

Fabio winced one of the troops got in a lucky shot, barely avoiding the one its companion shot off. As he went to sidestep the third, however, he failed to take into account how close to the edge he was. With a cry he fell over the edge, though he managed to grab one of the few remaining troops as gravity took hold. 

Quinn was momentarily distracted by the shout, but she shook her head and focused. Yusei was still locked in a strange little dual with Odette, pausing a moment to pick off the last of the Octotroopers. Nothing seemed to faze him, even the inkstrike that blossomed mere meters from his position. The boy met her eyes and mouthed one word: go. Startled, Quinn obeyed.

It was getting hard to make it through all of the unconscious bodies that were lying on the ground, but somehow the girl managed not to trip. Raising her Hero Shot, she pressed down on the trigger, splattering the Octostriker with more ink. The Octarian growled and shot off another inkstrike in an attempt to deter the girl, but Agent 3 kept on moving forward, nimbly dodging the attack. She pressed her advantage, nabbing the Octostriker with more ink, the soldier now almost the size of a normal Octobomber. One more shot would be enough.

The girl grit her teeth and fired one last time, the ink bullet coming into contact with the Octostriker’s body as it fired off one last inkstrike, the shot causing its aim to be off. A purple tornado formed back at the beginning of the area, rising up into the sky. With one final mighty roar that split the sky the Octostriker burst apart into a huge cloud of yellow ink, raining down on the UFO, the ground below, and the surrounding buildings. Odette scowled before jumping down into the cockpit of the Octarian vehicle, starting it up. Shakily Quinn and Yusei managed to leap off it and onto one of the taller skyscrapers nearby. Together they watched as Odette and the unconscious Octarian troops flew off into the morning light. 

“Good riddance.” Yusei muttered as a few more UFO’s that were laden with the ground troops that the four agents had splatted followed after their field leader. Quinn, however, frowned. 

“Hey, Four.” She said softly. “How come the Octostriker hasn’t reformed yet?” Yusei frowned as he considered the possibilities, before shrugging. 

“Probably whatever they did to its genetic code caused it to actually be killed when you splatted it, rather than knocked out.” He said, not seeing what the big deal was. After all, the two species were technically at war with each other, and there were going to be casualties on either side. Sure, the boy didn’t like the idea of killing, but it was inevitable in a fight. It was one of many reasons why an actual war was one of the worst things in the world, but as agents the quartet had to be prepared to save their civilization by any means necessary. 

“I killed him.” She muttered dully. “I murdered him.” Yusei shrugged again. 

“Well, I mean, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it murder…” He started before trailing off as his companion sank down to her knees, hands supporting her from falling over completely. 

“No…” She murmured, starting to panic as her breaths came in short gasps. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…” 

Dimly she was aware of Yusei yelling something to Flora and Fabio, the sounds of footsteps approaching, panicked voices, hands trying to restrain her. The world began to spin, the ground twisting and warping as her mind could only comprehend one thing: she had killed someone in cold blood. She was a murder, no better than Mark, the man that had killed her father. And it was that thought that finally overwhelmed her. With a weak cry, she tipped over and her world went black.


	30. The Promise

Langston sighed as he woke up, rolling out of bed and stumbling into the shower without bothering to open his eyes. He had lived in this particular room in the House of Hundred for months, and by this point he had memorized the layout. As the blue diluted ink washed over his body, he suddenly remembered one very important detail: he was still wearing his clothes.

“Splat me!” He hissed as he darted out of the shower and peeled his wet pajamas off. Throwing them into the hamper with a growl he stormed back into the shower, now thoroughly annoyed. Normally he remembered to undress before showering. It had to have been the events of the day. That had to have been what was throwing him off. 

 

With a sigh he finished his shower and dried off with a towel before pulling on his clothes. He had his standard Armour Jacket Replica and Red Sea Slugs, but before he pulled on his Gas Mask he took a moment to look at his reflection in the mirror. 

A medium blue Inkling stared back at him, blue eyes blinking as he quietly observed himself. He had pale skin, so different from Quinn’s bronze hue, and overall, he appeared to be very ordinary. That was, until one noticed the scars. They were red and puckered, marring his otherwise normal face. One of the respawn pads hadn’t worked correctly during one of his matches, and when they finally had managed to fix it and rescue him from limbo he had accumulated the scars on his face, though how it had happened was beyond him. He had ditched his Squid Nordic hat the very next day for a Gas Mask that hid them from view. 

Abruptly he stopped staring at the mirror and walked out of the bathroom. He didn’t have time to be worrying about his looks, nor did he really care at that point. The other members of the House knew about his secret, and they kept it faithfully, Besides, it wasn’t like Quinn would care if she saw them. She wasn’t the kind of girl to care about looks…

The boy immediately stopped that train of thought. Quinn didn’t need to know about his physical disfigurement, nor would she ever. She was just one of his friends, that was all. Only a few close people knew about his scars. The only reason the members of the house knew about them was because he had to take his mask off for meetings. With a growl he pulled his mask on and walked out of the bathroom. He had better things to do than think about Quinn.

.........................................................................................................

He was silent all the rest of the morning, choosing to eat breakfast in his room instead of going down to the community dining hall that was open to the residents of the building. No one questioned his absence, nor did anyone come up. They all knew why he wasn’t sitting at his normal table. It was that day.

No one spoke to him as he finally left his apartment, sneaking out of the House the back way to avoid the paparazzi that was perpetually gathered at the front. A few smiled sympathetically, but most knew that he wanted to be left alone. The train ride was torture, but somehow Langston endured it. He got off at Bluefin Depot and walked the lonely streets until he came to a rather large plot of land. It was here that he hesitated, before shaking his head and walking through the wrought iron grates.

It took him no time to find the one he was looking for, located all the way in the back. The first few times he had gotten lost in the massive cemetery, but now he could find his way through the graveyard blindfolded. He had done that one time, just for laughs. It seemed like something he would have done. 

With a sigh he sat down in front of the tombstone, fingers reaching out to brush against the inscription that was wet with dew. It stung a bit, the water mildly eating away at his fingers, causing him to pull them back. Instead, he settled for clasping them around his knees. For one moment, all was quiet. Then he sighed.

“Hey Kai.” He said softly. “I’m back again. I can’t believe that it’s been a whole year since the accident…”

.........................................................................................................

Agent Omega frowned as he peaked out from behind the mausoleum, observing the lone boy that was sitting in front of the grave. The blue Inkling was talking to the empty air, obviously intending the words to be heard by his dead friend. It was an interesting coping mechanism, to be certain, but Langston apparently didn’t care. 

“Things at the house are still going well.” Langston said to the empty air. “Yusei finally got dethroned by a kid named Ryker, though in truth it doesn’t bug him too much. The twins are still hyperactive, and Ryker’s gang of friends all are a bit cold and aloof. All except Dashiel. You’d like him Kai, he’s a nice kid. Things are a bit crazy, though, ever since the Zapfish were stolen. Some of them are starting to turn up, though. I think perhaps someone is retrieving them from whoever snuck into the cities and nabbed them. No one seems to know who the culprits are, however, nor does anyone know for certain who is retrieving them.”

Carefully he looked around, before sighing. 

“And that’s not even the craziest thing that has happened. I met a girl.” He frowned, a bit baffled where that had come from, before sighing. “Her name’s Quinn, and she’s got to be one of the most incredible Inklings I’ve ever met. She’s like the sky. I know it sounds cheesy, but she is Kai. One moment she’ll be bright and sunny, and then the next she’ll be dark and stormy. She’s a natural fighter, she’ll make it into the House easily. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. You’d like her for sure, I just know you would.”

Here he smiled, mostly out of relief. 

“My debt to you is repaid, by the way.” He murmured. “I helped Quinn out. She was unconscious on the street when I stumbled across her. She needed help, badly. So I set her up with an apartment for a year, some food, and $10,000 in cold, hard, cash. She doesn’t know it was me, I left an anonymous note for her. It’s just like when you helped me out, Kai. Remember that? Back when the others picked on me and wouldn’t let me enter any Turf War because I wasn’t fresh enough? You chased them off and took me under your wing. Those were the good old days, huh, back when it was just you and me against the world? I’m still using a .52 Gal Deco, just like you did. All those tricks you taught me are paying off. But more importantly, I did what you wanted. I didn’t let the cycle end.”

Here he blushed, desperately trying to contain the bright crimson hue that had dyed his face.  
“I...I think I like Quinn.” He said shyly. “I mean, like like, not just like. You know, not just as a friend, but more than just a friend. Oh...like, we’re really good friends. I think I love her, Kai. Did you ever love anyone? I think you did - there was that one pretty teal Inkling that you always had your eye on. I think her name was Nox, but I’m not sure, it’s been so long. I’d follow Quinn to the end of the ocean if it would make her happy. Did you feel that way about your crush, Kai? I know you would have gone anywhere for Nox, but then the accident happened, and well...you...didn’t make it…”

He trailed off with another sigh, before standing up. 

“I’ve been gone too long, the others are going to start worrying.” He muttered to himself. “See you later, Kai.”

With that he turned and began walking out of the cemetery, soon becoming lost in the mist. It was only when Agent Omega knew for certain that he was gone did the shadowy figure leave his hiding spot and walk to the tombstone that Langston had been talking to. Silently he reached out to brush his fingers across the name carved on it, and a faint smile graced his face. 

“So, you kept your promise, huh Langston.” Omega said. “I see you still have my old weapon. I hope it’s been serving you well, just as it once served me. As for following Alpha to the edge of the world, well, I’ve already done that…”

It was his turn to sigh, and the tall Inkling turned away. With a purpose he walked out of the graveyard, grabbing his Tri Slosher from where it leaned against the wall. He had been unable to get a different weapon after fleeing Inkopolis. The bucket-shaped weapon had served him well, but he missed the feeling of his gun in his hands.

“Agent Delta, this is Omega checking in.” He radioed as he walked towards the seashore. “The mission has been complete. I’m returning to base.” 

“Copy that, Omega.” Delta replied, his voice cracking from the static. “See you soon.” 

“Count on it.” Omega murmured before severing the radio connection. On the horizon he could see his ride making its way towards the shore. Without a backwards glance towards the cemetery he hopped into the boat as it passed, greeting his two colleagues as the stealthily made their escape.


End file.
